


all the spaces in between

by reyofdarkness (mitslits)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi
Genre: Gen, Mostly Gen, Post-TLJ, Reylo - Freeform, but there-ish, finn/rose is sorta wobbly, is endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-03 14:22:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13343079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mitslits/pseuds/reyofdarkness
Summary: The Rebels have taken shelter from the First Order on Yavin 4, where an old Rebel base awaits them. Their Commander, Leia Organa, has gone to gather their allies in the Outer Rim, leaving Poe Dameron in charge of the small group that remains.The First Order, spearheaded by the new Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, hunts them relentlessly.Kylo Ren and Rey struggle to navigate the strange bond that still seems to linger between them...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i wanna preface this by saying i know absolutely nothing about Star Wars so if you're looking for a lot of canon adherence, this is not the place to find it lol i'm going pretty much solely off of The Last Jedi here 
> 
> also many thanks to debnebula, without whom i would not have had the confidence to post this and who also caught several of my typos~

It’s been days, and the memory of him still lingers in her fingertips. Kylo’s skin against hers, a contact that shouldn’t even have been possible, and yet, somehow, was. Rey curls her hand into a fist and lets out a long, slow breath. She can’t keep thinking about this. About him. He made his choice. 

Rey makes her way to the bridge of the Falcon only to find she’s one of the last to arrive. Finn and Poe are already there along with most of the surviving Rebels. There are so few of them, it makes her heart ache. 

Finn spots her the instant she steps into the room, and Rey takes her place beside him just as Poe gets to his feet. 

At first, he hadn’t struck Rey as the type to command, but Leia had placed him in charge, and Rey trusts her judgment if nothing else. 

Poe waits until everyone seems settled before he starts to speak. “We’re all that’s left of the Rebellion,” he begins. “There are fewer of us than there should be, and I don’t deny my part in that.” 

Beside her, Finn tenses, and Rey places a comforting hand on his arm. She’s told him at least a dozen times that they’d only done what they thought was right, but she knows what it’s like to burden oneself with grief. She could say it a dozen more, and it wouldn’t make much difference. 

“But I promise,” Poe continues, “that I won’t let this Rebellion down.” 

There are a few skeptical faces among the Rebels, but many in the crowd are nodding along. 

Rey suspects that they, like her, have simply placed all their faith in Leia. If she believes Poe is good enough to be in charge, then he is. Simple, really. Still, Rey can’t help but feel a pang of loss whenever she thinks of their absent Commander. She wishes she could have stayed. 

Poe nods to the Falcon’s window, indicating the small slice of planet they can see through the glass. Yavin 4 is new to many of them, but a few of the older Rebels remember it from the days of the Empire. “This used to be a Rebel base,” Poe says. “It’s not as heavily armored as Crait, but it should keep us safe from the First Order until we have a chance to regroup.” 

Poe casts a long, sweeping look over the crowd. “We can’t give up. Leia  _ will _ be back, and she’ll have a whole fleet of allies with her. We just have to hold on until then.” 

Finn reaches for Rey’s hand, links their fingers together, and squeezes. 

Rey squeezes back. 

Poe waits a beat to see if anyone has anything to say, but when all is quiet, he nods decisively. “The injured can stay onboard. As for the rest of us, let’s find out what the old Rebels left us.” 

With that, the meeting dissolves. People cluster into groups, gathering supplies and arming themselves in case the planet isn’t as uninhabited as it appears to be. Neither the Falcon nor BB-8 could pick up any signs of life in their vicinity, but they’re not taking any chances. 

Rey makes to join them, but Finn doesn’t follow her. “Aren’t you coming?” she asks. 

Finn hesitates and casts a glance back into the Falcon’s depths. “I should probably check on Rose.” 

Rey pauses. Rose had had a few moments of consciousness as they’d traveled to Yavin 4, but she’d only really woken up the day before. Rey was looking forward to getting to meet her properly. “Of course,” she says. “Let me know how she is later?” 

Finn gives her as much of a smile as he can muster, travel-weary and ragged as he is. “Yeah. I’ll find you.” He disappears down the hallway, leaving Rey to join the other Rebels. 

Her hand automatically drifts to the spot on her hip where her lightsaber should be, but her fingers encounter only empty air. Their tips tingle again, but she slams that door of her mind closed before she, or anyone else, can walk through it. Rey heads back to her quarters instead, a small section of a storage room partitioned off with cloth, and grabs her staff. Its weight is a familiar comfort at her back, but it’s not quite the same as the lightsaber. It will serve her well enough, though, and she’s eager to explore their new base. 

Poe is waiting at the head of the group by the time Rey gets back to the bridge. He greets her with a nod as she joins them. “All clear out there, BB-8?” he asks the little droid. 

A cheery chirp seems to satisfy him, and they all watch as the Falcon’s bay door eases open. 

A forest greets them, foliage bubbling right up to the edge of the ship. They’d landed in a clearing just large enough for the Falcon to fit into in the hopes that the treetops might provide some cover. But what helps them could just as easily be hiding something else. 

Instinctively, the Rebels move forward as a collective. Rey moves with them, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. She’d thought she was used to green by now, but seeing so much of it in one place is still overwhelming. 

Wind rustles the treetops as they step off the ramp, sets them waving. It almost looks like the planet itself is greeting them. 

Poe is the first to actually set foot on the ground, blaster at the ready. 

Nothing emerges from the foliage to challenge them. No First Order ships appear in the sky above them. Yet Rey can’t bring herself to really relax, even as the wind dies down and the trees still. 

They step away from the safety of their ship hesitantly, every one of them on edge. 

_ We’re not people, _ Rey thinks.  _ We’re prey.  _

They’ve been reduced to this, skulking through the underbrush at the end of a terror-filled flight across the galaxy. And maybe fate hasn’t been kind to them lately, but they’re still here, fighting, pushing on into the unknown. 

Rey is right there with them, skirting around dangerous looking plants and doing her best to keep the others in sight. It’s difficult to watch the land around her and keep an eye on her fellow Rebels, and the next time Rey looks up, she realizes none of them are in sight. 

Something shifts in the air around her.

Immediately, Rey’s hand flies to her staff. She swings without thinking - and stops an inch from Kylo’s face. He stands beside her in the foliage, braced against a blow that didn’t fall. 

Abruptly, Rey straightens her shoulders. She secures her staff back on her back and walks past Kylo as if she doesn’t see him. She  _ can,  _ though, and she’s all too aware of his eyes watching her as she leaves him behind.

Something cracks behind her, and she spins, ready to confront Kylo, but instead it’s Poe pushing his way through the bushes towards her. 

“Everything okay?” he asks, keen eyes catching the tension in every line of her body. 

“Fine,” Rey says. She forces herself to relax. “Just thought I heard something, that’s all. Other than you, I mean.” 

Poe peers at her closely for a moment, but he doesn’t press the issue. “Come on,” he says instead. “Let’s get back to the others.” 

They’re not difficult to find. All they have to do is follow the trail of broken foliage, and it leads them straight to the others, still clustered together as much as they can be amongst the trees. BB-8 rolls up to Poe then, chirping and whirring. 

“Rebel base, straight ahead,” Poe mutters. 

Sure enough, a few more steps brings them to another clearing, this one containing a mass of dull, gray rock rising straight up from the ground. It had clearly once been a natural landmark, a mountain of sorts that the Rebels had tunneled into and hollowed out. Moss grows from cracks in the walls and dangles in front of the entrance, two arching doors set seamlessly into the stone. It looks impenetrable, but the memory of the First Order’s battering ram canon is still fresh in their minds, and Rey knows it wouldn’t stand a chance against that. If the First Order finds them, they’ll be sitting ducks. 

Poe walks right up to the doors, running his fingers along the slight cracks that denote their presence. There’s a keypad to the right, and he faces the clouded screen with a grim set to his jaw. “Let’s hope this thing still works,” he mutters. He keys in the code Leia had given him before she’d left, and they all hold their breath.

The pad flashes once, beeps once, and the whole base shudders as the doors start to rumble open. 

Poe sighs in relief, and several of the other Rebels let out triumphant whoops. 

Rey closes her eyes and smiles, letting herself enjoy the small victory. 

“All right, let’s remind this place what it used to be!” Rubbing his hands together, Poe walks in. He gets right into it, activating lights and brushing copious amounts of dust off of the old machines. 

Rey finds herself on her own once more as the rest of them slowly disperse throughout the complex. She wanders through the corridors and traces her hand along the wall. It distracts her from that insistent burn in her fingertips. 

How many Rebels have died on Kylo’s orders? And yet she knows there’s good in him, even now. She’s seen it. 

Sighing, Rey turns to face him. “What do you want?” 

“You know what I want,” Kylo says quietly. 

Rey’s lip curls slightly. “Then you know you’ll never get it.” 

Kylo’s mouth trembles, just barely, just for a moment, but Rey sees it. “If you don’t,” he says, “there’s only one way this can end.” 

For the first time since she’d closed the Falcon’s door on him, Rey meets his eyes. “How will it end, then?” she asks. “Say it.” 

Kylo shudders, but he keeps his eyes on hers. “I’ll kill you,” he rasps. “All of you.” 

Rey stares back at him for a moment. “I don’t believe you,” she finally says, voice as hard as her eyes.  

Kylo opens his mouth to reply, but footsteps behind Rey draw her attention. She spins to find Poe looking past her to the empty hallway before her. 

“Who were you talking to?” he asks. 

Rey flushes and shakes her head once. “No one. Myself.” She straightens her shoulders and tries to look as cool as possible. “What’s our situation?” 

Eyes narrowed slightly, Poe jerks his head back towards the rest of the base. “There’s more than enough room for all of us and our equipment. Some of the old tech still works, so we might even be able to communicate with Leia if we can figure out where she is.” 

Rey’s heart grows a bit lighter at the thought. It would do them all good to get in touch with their Commander. But her brief easiness evaporates when Poe takes a step forward. 

“Are you sure nothing’s going on with you?” He’s staring at her intently as if he can discern what’s inside her head just by looking. 

Instinctively, Rey shrinks away from him. She’s not doing anything wrong, she reminds herself. There’s no reason she should be worried. But if that’s true, then why is her heart pounding so rapidly in her chest? 

“Rey?” Poe presses, and he takes another step towards her. 

Rey opens her mouth to say something -- she doesn’t even know what -- when Finn hails them from the end of the hall.

“Rey! Poe. I’ve been looking for you two,” he says, hurrying over to them. That same weary smile is back on his face. “Rose wants to talk to you. Both of you. Says she’s feeling up to it.” 

Poe hesitates, gaze still lingering on Rey, but he nods. “All right. I’ll go see her as soon as we’re done setting things up in here.” With that, he starts walking back to the main room, leaving Rey and Finn on their own. 

Finn turns to her and holds out his hand. “Come on.” 

Casting one nervous glance back in the direction Poe had gone, Rey takes Finn’s hand, and together they head back to the Falcon. 

~ 

Kylo stands in front of a long panel window on the newest addition to the First Order fleet: a dreadnought intended for Snoke himself, a glorious ship the former Supreme Leader had not lived long enough to see. 

Stars spread out in front of Kylo like a map he can’t read, Rey one sparkling cluster lost amongst the others. He looks at the black in between and curses its obscurity. 

Their ranks have swelled since the Rebel’s last-ditch attempt to escape. Hux had summoned the full power of the First Order, and yet they still wander aimlessly through the galaxy, each planet just as likely to house the ragged group as any other. 

Much as he tries to ignore it, a sliver of relief has lodged itself behind Kylo’s ribcage, digs into his heart with every breath. If they can’t find them, they can’t face them. If they can’t find them, Rey is safe.  

There’s a desk reflected faintly in the glass, a reminder that Kylo has work he should be doing. Sighing, he turns away from the stars. 

Just as he does that voice, that damned voice, sounds in his mind. 

_ The mighty Kylo Ren, _ Luke says, sounding just as he had on Crait, when he hadn’t really been there, of course he hadn’t been, didn’t leave footprints, used a broken lightsaber, Kylo should have  _ seen _ it,  _ brought down by a scavenger from nowhere. _

“I haven’t been brought down,” Kylo snarls, out loud. “Look around, old man. I have more power now than ever.” 

Luke chuckles wryly, the not-quite-memory of his voice paper thin.  _ And yet you don’t have her. _

“I don’t NEED HER,” Kylo roars. He picks up the object closest to him - an unfortunate inkwell sitting on the desk - and hurls it at the window. 

The inkwell shatters on impact, and rivulets of black run down the glass. 

“Supreme Leader.” 

Kylo whirls to find Hux watching him with barely concealed disgust. “What is it?” he hisses. 

“They’re here,” Hux says impassively. He pretends not to see the ink still tracing dripping trails down the glass. 

Kylo’s hand curls into a fist, the black leather of his gloves creaking. “Good. Bring them to me.” 


	2. Chapter 2

By the time Finn and Rey reach Rose, she’s awake and restless, picking at the cotton threads of her blanket. Her face lights up at the sight of them, but there’s a nervous tint to her smile when she catches sight of Rey. “You’re Rey.” Her voice is almost timid. 

Rey can’t help but return her smile. “And you’re Rose, right?” she says. “The Resistance hero.” 

Rose blushes all the way down to her collarbones and clutches at the blanket. “I-I’m not a hero,” she stammers, growing redder by the second. 

“No?” Rey takes a seat on the edge of the metal pallet serving as Rose’s bed. “Finn told me what the two of you did. Not everyone would sneak onboard a First Order ship, especially Snoke’s.” 

_ You did,  _ a voice that might have been Kylo’s says in the back of her mind.  _ But not with the same intentions.  _

Shaking the voice off, Rey covers one of Rose’s hands with her own. “That seems pretty heroic to me.” 

Rose drops her eyes, but she doesn’t protest further. She decides she likes the sound of Rose Tico, Resistance hero.  

“So. Rey,” Rose says, with a sly look at Finn. “What’s Jakku like? Finn won’t say anything about it.” 

Finn shakes his head and heaves a world-weary sigh. He looks up at the ceiling as if praying to some higher power for strength. 

Rey’s smile grows a bit wider. She loses herself in telling Rose about her old home, the things she’d found as a scavenger, the desert life she’d lived and breathed and thought she would die in. It’s strange how far away it seems now. Her world has grown so much bigger. 

She’s just telling Rose about how her and Finn had first met when Poe joins them, finally done overseeing the others. 

“How’s the base?” Rose asks. She’s eager to see it when she heals enough to get up and walk around. 

Poe claps her on the shoulder. “Base is good. I’ll give you a tour when you’re feeling up to it, and there’s a few things I’d like you to take a look at. You any good with pipes?” 

“Just give me a wrench,” Rose says. But she wilts back against the pillow even as she speaks, her eyelids drooping slightly. 

Finn glances at her with quiet concern. “Maybe we should let her rest.” 

“Good idea,” Poe says, dropping his voice an octave. “I need to talk to Rey anyways.” 

A shiver of foreboding trips down Rey’s spine, but she does her best not to let it show. Instead, she only nods, and Poe leads the way out of Rose’s room. 

For a second, Finn doesn’t move. Then with one last look at Rose, he trails after Rey and Poe. He hurries to fall in step beside her, head tilted curiously. 

Rey just shakes her head once. He’ll find out soon enough. She tells herself she hasn’t done anything wrong over and over like a mantra as they draw closer to the bridge. 

The three of them come to a halt as if on cue. Poe turns to face Rey, and Finn stops just behind her. 

“What’s going on?” he asks, bewildered. 

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Poe says. His eyes bore into Rey’s with startling intensity, and she’s suddenly glad he’s on her side. She wouldn’t like to be on his bad side. 

But, she tells herself, she might find out what that’s like soon enough. Throat dry, she shifts her weight from one foot to another. 

Finn looks back and forth between Rey and Poe helplessly. “Rey?” 

She opens her mouth, but the confession catches in her throat. She’s never really talked about it, has done her best not to think about it since she boarded the Falcon. “I…” 

They’re both staring at her now, and she can feel heat rising in her cheeks. 

“I see him,” she finally says. “Ben. We’re connected.” She’s used the wrong name, she knows that immediately, but it’s too late to take it back. She drops her eyes, unable to meet theirs, and braces herself against the rising tide of disapproval she can sense simmering in the air. 

For a long, long moment, there’s only silence. Then Poe breaks it. “So the First Order knows exactly where we are.” He doesn’t sound angry or even surprised, just unendingly exhausted. 

“ _ No, _ ” Rey says quickly. “He doesn’t have any idea.” 

Poe’s eyes narrow. “You saw him in the forest, though, didn’t you? And again in the base. He has to know.” 

Desperately, Rey shakes her head. “No, I swear. He can’t see anything around me. Just me.” 

“Rey,” Finn cuts in, and her heart stutters at the look on his face. It’s twisted into something like agony. “You do realize how that sounds?” 

Her face is truly burning now. “It’s not like that,” she says, a little too quickly. 

A  _ very  _ awkward silence settles between the three of them, and again, mercifully, Poe breaks it. “So he can’t see us. Can he hear us?” 

Rey hesitates, and that is all the answer Poe needs. 

“He can,” he says. 

“I think so,” Rey admits. It’s all too easy to recall the way his eyes had flashed to the empty space over her shoulder where Luke had stood. 

Poe straightens up abruptly. “You  _ think _ so?” 

Frustration wells up within her at the suspicion glittering in his eyes - and in Finn’s. “I don’t know!” she snaps. “I don’t know how any of this works. I didn’t ask for this to happen! Do you think I wanted him to get in my head?” She forces her mouth shut before she can say anything more damning, but the damage has already been done. 

Poe closes his eyes, stands as silent and still as a statue for so long Rey considers just walking out. Then he reopens them, and his face sags with defeat. “Right now, I don’t know what to think,” he mutters. 

Rey recoils as if he’d struck her. She looks to Finn, sure he’ll jump to her defense, but he stands frozen between the two of them. Waves of shock, anger, hurt rip through her in short order. Abruptly, she turns on her heel and stalks from the room. 

Footsteps come pounding after her, but she doesn’t stop until she feels a hand on her arm. She turns to find Finn, his expression still stuck somewhere between accusation and agony. 

“Don’t take it too personally,” he says. “Poe is just trying to protect the Rebellion.” 

Rey jerks her arm from his grasp. “From  _ me? _ ” she asks. “I’m not a danger!” She sounds shrill and defensive even to her own ears, and she snaps her mouth shut so fast she almost bites her tongue. 

Finn looks as if he’s going to say something,  _ wants _ to say something, but he just looks away. 

Rey straightens her shoulders, lifts her chin, and walks away. 

~

Poe is wearing a furrow in the Falcon’s floor when Finn gets back to the bridge. “She’s a liability,” he says, throwing a glance his way. 

“She wouldn’t betray us,” Finn says quickly. 

“She wouldn’t  _ mean _ to,” Poe corrects, still pacing. “But she said he can hear what she does. We can’t ask the whole Rebellion to be silent so that nothing accidentally slips.” He rakes a hand through his hair and finally comes to a halt. “She can’t be around the others.” 

Finn’s heart sinks. It isn’t fair to Rey, or any of them, really, but he fears Poe is right. “I’ll talk to her,” he says quietly. “Later.” Once she’s had a chance to calm down. 

Grim-faced and tight-lipped, Poe only nods. 

~

Rey takes solace in the part of the Falcon that counts as hers. Her heart aches to know that they’re wary of her - that  _ Finn’s  _ wary of her. She’d never thought he would have cause to fear her. 

She feels him before she sees him, that subtle shift in the atmosphere that isn’t quite like anything else. “Go away,” she says without even looking up. 

“I can’t,” Kylo says. 

Rey tucks her knees up to her chest and rests her chin on them like a child, sighing. “It’s supposed to be over,” she says. “This connection. Snoke is dead.” She does turn to look at him then. “You killed him.” 

Something deep, deep in his eyes shifts, the rest of his face a mask of neutrality. “Snoke lied.” 

The words cut through Rey’s grief. 

“He wasn’t the one who bridged our minds,” Kylo continues, that strange light still burning in his gaze. “Something bigger than him brought us together.” 

The thought isn’t exactly comforting, especially with everything it implies. What about the two of them has drawn them together like this? “How do we stop it?” she asks dully. 

Hurt flashes across Kylo’s face, but he buries it quickly. “We can’t.” 

That isn’t what Rey wants to hear at all. Upset as she is with Poe, she knows he’s right. As long as Kylo can get to her, she’s putting the Rebellion at risk. 

“Go away,” she says again through gritted teeth. 

This time, Kylo disappears. 

~

Finn returns to his place by Rose, his problems with Rey fading into the background as he catches sight of her. With a heavy sigh, he takes a seat at the foot of her bed. He knows what he should say, but he’s reluctant to say it, especially with everything he’s just learned. Peace, just one moment of peace, would be nice. 

Eventually, he looks up to find Rose already staring at him. When he locks eyes with her, she blushes and drops her gaze. 

“We should talk,” he says, “about what you did on Crait.” 

Rose’s blush only deepens. “Yeah. Sorry about the kiss. I thought I was gonna die.” There’s no defensiveness in her voice, just apology and more than a hint of embarrassment. 

Finn blinks once, twice, three times before his brow furrows. “Does that mean it wasn’t real?” 

Rose shrugs one shoulder. “Did you… want it to be?” She glances up briefly, before she returns to studying the blanket. 

“I don’t know,” Finn admits. He hadn’t had much time to think about in the mad dash to get away from the First Order and all that had happened after. He’s not going to puzzle it all out now either. “Doesn’t matter. That’s not what I was talking about.” 

“Oh,” Rose says. She stops studying the blanket and leans back against the wall. “Then what  _ were  _ you talking about?” 

“That dumb stunt you pulled, crashing your speeder into mine. You could have gotten both of us killed!” The words come out in a torrent now that he’s started, and he struggles to keep his voice down. 

Rose shrinks away from his intensity, lips twisted into a grimace. She retreats into herself, wrapping her arms around her waist and hunching her shoulders, thoroughly chastened. 

Finn quiets. A moment of silence settles between them before he speaks again. “But we didn’t die. And you saved me. So what I’m trying to say is… thanks.” 

Still looking a little deflated, Rose slowly uncoils herself. “You’re welcome.” She reaches out to nudge him with her foot, a shy smile playing over her lips. “Dummy.” 

Finn can’t help but return the smile. 

~

Kylo is pulled away from Rey just as the Knights of Ren file into his stateroom. The ink has dried on the window, black smudges still visible against the glass, but the room is impressive nonetheless. 

A massive throne sits against the far wall, obsidian shot through with veins of silver. It looks out over the rest of the room, dominates it, makes the rest of the place feel small. Kylo’s desk sits by itself nearer the front. Directly in front of the throne is a long table with enough room for all the officers of the First Order. If he wanted to, Kylo could look down on them all from the throne. He hasn’t used it once. 

And he’s certainly not going to use it now. 

As the Knights file in, Kylo feels something he hasn’t felt in a long time wash over him - relief. There are few people he’s ever trusted as completely as the small group in front of him. 

“You can go,” Kylo tells Hux, who is still lingering in the doorway. He would probably stand there throughout the whole meeting if Kylo let him. “And make sure I’m not disturbed,” he adds, almost as an afterthought. 

“Of course,” Hux says with faux civility. He casts one last look around the room before leaving. 

A twitch of Kylo’s fingers makes sure the door closes behind him. 

Left alone with the Knights, Kylo truly relaxes. They’re all unmasked, and he can see the children they used to be in their faces, buried underneath years that haven’t always been kind to them. 

His friends - the only ones he’s ever really had - help themselves to seats at the table. 

Merra’s cut her hair short since the last time he saw her. Brown curls frizz around her face, flouncing as she drops into a chair. Dune sits next to her, an unblinking wall of muscle with at least four inches on the rest of them. Osk and Blaid sit across from them. Osk stares impassively at the room around him, and Blaid kicks his feet up on the table. Last to find a place is Ash. She sits at the edge of her seat, rigid, unblinking. 

Kylo moves to the foot of the table and they turn to look at him as one. His eyes linger on the empty place next to Dune. “Where’s Thane?” 

“Still out looking for the Rebels,” Blaid says, tilting his chair back to balance on two legs. 

“As we all were,” Osk breaks in. “Before you called us here.” His pale eyes regard Kylo listlessly, but Kylo isn’t fooled; he knows curiosity when he sees it. 

Merra runs a hand through her hair to push it out of her face. “Wanna tell us what we’re doing here,  _ Supreme Leader? _ ” She smirks as if the title is amusing to her. 

Dune grunts, which is about as much speech as he’s capable of. 

Kylo rakes his eyes over them. “You’re here because I asked you to be,” he says. “You can forget your previous obligations. From now on, you aren’t loyal to Snoke. You aren’t loyal to the First Order. You’re loyal to  _ me. _ Is that understood?” 

The five of them exchange glances, but in the end, they all nod. 

“Good,” Kylo says. 

_ Your Praetorian Guard, _ Luke whispers in his mind.  _ But how much good did they do Snoke? _

~

The Knights are left to their own devices after the brief meeting. By unspoken agreement, they gather in Blaid’s quarters. There is more than enough room for all of them to fit comfortably, even Dune. 

“Now this is traveling in style.” Blaid stretches out on the bed and tucks his arms behind his head. “Much better than that little transport I’ve been cruising around in. I got cramps in muscles I didn’t even know I had.” 

Merra shoves at him until he moves over to make room for her. She flops down next to him, smirking. “You think you’ve  had it bad? Try sharing one of those ships with Dune. Hogs all the space without even trying.” She winks over at Dune. 

He folds his arms over his chest and grunts in what might be indignation. 

Merra laughs. “You’re good to have in a fight, though, I’ll give you that.” 

Dune lifts his chin and puffs out his chest, thumps it once, makes Merra laugh again. 

Osk commandeers a chair and sucks at his teeth. “All hail Kylo Ren,” he mutters. “Supreme Leader of the First Order and provider of fine lodgings.” 

Merra levers herself up onto her elbows and nudges Ash’s thigh with her foot. “Come on, even you’ve got to be enjoying this,” she teases. 

Ash lifts one shoulder in a half-shrug. 

Merra whistles. “It’s even got Ash’s approval. All hail Kylo Ren indeed.” 

“Speaking of,” Blaid says, hauling himself into a sitting position and looking stone-faced at the rest of them. “Anyone else find it strange how our Supreme Leader knows exactly where our loyalties lie, but we don’t know anything about  _ his? _ ” 

Scoffing, Merra flops back onto the mattress. “He’s got command of the whole First Order, Blaid. I think it’s pretty  clear.” 

“Is it?” Osk asks. He stares steadily at Blaid, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. 

“You’re not loyal to the First Order,” Blaid says, echoing Kylo. “You’re loyal to me. Why specify unless they’re not one and the same?” 

Merra’s brow furrows, and even Dune looks thoughtful. 

It is into this silence that Ash finally speaks. “He’s scared.” Her voice is whisper-quiet, but it seems to fill the room.

Blaid hums agreeably. “Scared,” he confirms. “But scared of what?” 


	3. Chapter 3

Rey sits alone in her room until she can’t stand it anymore. She might not be able to really be  _ with  _ the Rebels, but she at least wants to explore the base. Purely out of habit, she straps her staff to her back and heads through the Falcon to the base. She nearly collides with Finn as she rounds the first corner. 

“Rey.” He places his hands on her shoulders to steady her. “I was just coming to look for you.” 

“Why? To make sure I don’t hear anything I shouldn’t?” Rey snaps before she can stop herself. 

Finn’s face falls. He drops his hands and takes a few hesitant steps back. 

Immediately, the fight drains out of Rey and, sighing, she rubs at her face. “I didn’t mean that,” she says quietly. “I just wanted to look around the base before I have to lock myself away.” She offers him a weak smile and a limp shrug to go along with it. 

Finn stuffs his hands in  his pockets and tries to return it. “Want some company? Promise I won’t mention where we are.” He presses a hand over his heart. 

Rey’s smile gets a bit more genuine. “Come on, then.” 

Together, they leave the Falcon and head into the base.

~

Poe rubs his thumb absently over the ridges of the cloaked binary beacon, the only real connection they still have with Leia. He peers intently over Connix’s shoulder at the screen of the ancient machine they’ve booted up. It’s criss-crossed with a grid of green and white lines, small specks of red roaming through the black spaces between. 

“What am I looking at?” he asks. 

“A map,” Connix replies. “Green lines are latitude, white are longitude.” 

“And the dots are ships,” Poe says, attention shifting to the moving red spots. He closes his hand around the beacon. 

Connix ones. “The ones that aren’t cloaking themselves, anyways. This is old tech; it can’t tell us anything about the ship other than that it’s there.” 

Sighing, Poe straightens up. “So what you’re telling me is it won’t do anything to help us find her.” 

Connix presses her lips together and shakes her head. 

“Great,” Poe mutters. He sets the beacon on top of the console and watches it pulse for a few seconds. Eventually, he looks back at Connix. “Keep looking anyways,” he tells her. “At least we’ll be able to see any unshielded ships coming our way.” It’s not much in the way of a security system, but it will have to do. 

Saluting smartly, Connix’s eyes drift briefly to the beacon before she bends to her task. 

~

For the most part, Finn and Rey avoid the others. She’s already seen the most crowded parts of the base anyways, the kitchens, sleeping quarters, monitor stations… Rey prefers the  storage rooms, filled with things the old Rebels had left behind. Digging through their old junk reminds her of her time on Jakku. Unconsciously, she measures the worth of ancient comms, scrap metal, and abandoned machinery in portions of food. 

Finn’s presence reminds her that she’s left that world far behind, and it’s a strange relief to leave the artifacts behind. 

The closer they get to the back of the base, the colder and darker it gets. The Rebels had only bored so far into the mountain, and the weight starts to feel more and more impressive. Rey can’t help but picture the massive amount of stone above their heads. It should make her feel claustrophobic or stifled, but she can’t bring herself to mind. The base has held this long; there’s no reason it should come down now. 

Eventually, they come to a smooth wall of black stone. They’re truly alone now. The rest of the Rebels were sticking to the lighter, busier parts of the base. 

Finn shrugs. “Guess that’s it,” he says.

Rey looks along the wall as far as she can see in both directions. “Wait,” she says. “What’s that?” 

There’s a dark recess off to one side, black set in black. 

Rey moves towards the shadow-swathed hole, and Finn follows a little reluctantly. 

“Just looks like a hole to me,” he says, stopping a few feet away from the gaping maw. 

But Rey is drawn forward, right into the mouth of it. “It’s a tunnel.” Her voice echoes back to her, bouncing off the rock walls. She glances back at Finn over her shoulder. “Want to see where it goes?” 

Finn doesn’t think he really has much choice in the matter. Sure enough, Rey moves deeper and deeper into the tunnel, leaving him to either follow her or head back on his own. Muttering about certain adventurous scavengers, he plunges into the passageway after her. 

At first, there’s a bit of muted light from the base proper they’ve left behind. That soon begins to fade, and Rey wonders if they’ll be left in total darkness. Soon enough, though, the walls become streaked with small veins of glowing stone. The light is faint, pulsing, but enough to guide their path. 

The passage gradually begins to slope downwards, and the air grows a few degrees cooler. 

Finn shivers. “What  _ is  _ this place?” 

Curiosity pulls Rey ever onwards. She feels no fear, only an eagerness to find out what lies at the end. 

The ground levels out again, and the tunnel opens up into a massive, underground cavern. The far end of the chamber is lost somewhere in the blackness, the thin threads of glowstone not enough to illuminate the whole place. 

Caged doors stud the walls, closing off large cells. All of them are empty, but long wooden troughs in the middle of the cave and the rotten hay scattered on the floor suggest they weren’t always that way. 

Finn gazes at the cells, reminded briefly of the fathier stables on Canto Bight.  _ What would Rose think of  _ this _ place? _ he wonders. Out loud, he asks, “What do you think they kept in here?” 

“I don’t know,” Rey says, her voice inexplicably hushed. Somehow, it doesn’t seem quite right to speak loudly in a place like this. She moves further into the room, peering into the cells. A flash of white catches her eye in the first one to the right. Brow furrowed, Rey pulls the door open and steps inside. 

The hinges squeal in protest, and Finn whips around at the sound. “Rey,” he hisses. “What are you doing?” 

But she doesn’t seem to hear him. The faint glow of the stone glints off the small speck of white in the far corner of the cell. She drifts over to it and kneels down, fingers reaching out to trace the symbol carved into the wall. 

It’s a picture of two in one, a person sitting cross-legged, one half black stone, the other calcium white. She’s seen it before, on Ach-To, stamped into the floor and glistening with water. 

“Rey,” Finn says, louder this time, and it jerks her out of her trance. “Let’s go.” He glances around nervously at their surroundings. “Place gives me the creeps.” 

A little reluctant, Rey stands up. She turns a reassuring smile on Finn and nods towards the passage. “Lead the way.” 

As they start back up the slanting ground, Rey can’t help but wonder why the mark of the Jedi was carved into the cell wall in the depths of the mountain.  

~

The thought of the cell won’t leave her mind. She lies awake that night, staring into the darkness, the symbol branded in her mind. She has a million questions and absolutely no one to put them to. 

Still, Rey knows enough by now not to ignore her instincts. She sits up and snatches up her pack. 

Most of the Rebels sleep in the base, but there are still a few on the Falcon and she’s reduced to sneaking through the ship until she reaches Rose’s room. Holding her breath and trying to be as quiet as possible, Rey creeps over to the drawer that contains the Jedi texts. 

She’s got them stuffed in her bag and is just sneaking off again when Rose stirs. 

“Rey?” she asks groggily, pushing herself up onto one elbow. “What’s happening?” 

Wincing, Rey glances back over her shoulder. “Nothing,” she whispers. “I just needed to… get something. Go back to sleep.” She keeps her voice low, not wanting to disturb anyone else; she knows Finn sleeps close by. 

Thankfully, Rose obeys, lowering herself back down and slipping back into sleep. 

Rey makes her way through the deserted halls of the base without incident. There’s a pair of guards at the doors, but they only nod as she passes through.  _ They  _ don’t know about Kylo, know that a stray word could bring the First Order down on their heads if she’s around to hear it. The thought makes her chest feel tight. 

It loosens again only once she’s standing at the entrance to that strange passage, one hand clutching the strap of her bag. 

There aren’t any whispering voices like there were on Ach-To, but that same draw is there, the same call into the dark. She sucks in a deep breath and steps into its embrace. 

The glowing veins of stone pulse slightly as she walks along the path, in sync with her footsteps as if they sense her presence. Their light seems to grow stronger the closer she gets to the disused cavern. 

Rey goes immediately to the first cell, the one with the marking near the back. The door squeals in protest again as she hauls it open, but she ignores it and forces it closed all the same. The echo of clanging shut dies away, and Rey is left standing in the middle of the cell. 

Feeling a bit foolish, she looks around at the empty space. What had she thought was going to happen? It’s just an old room with something carved into the wall. Still, she’s there now. She moves over to the symbol and sits down below it, wedged into the corner, and sets her pack beside her. She pulls out one of the texts and settles it on her lap. She might as well read something while she has the chance. 

To her dismay, the book is written in a language that she’s not very familiar with. She recognizes a few of the words, but reading the whole thing certainly isn’t going to be easy. Rey rests her finger on the page to keep her place and begins to trudge through it. 

It’s slow going. She has to pause every few words to spell things out, and most of the language is ponderously plodding. She whispers the words to herself, brow furrowed in concentration, finger mapping her progress along the pages. 

By the time she gets to the second page, her eyelids have begun to droop. Fighting to stay awake, Rey struggles onto the third. She only makes it halfway through before her eyes close completely, and her hand rests limply on the book. 

It could have been hours or only minutes later when Rey startles awake. She groans at the stiffness in her limbs from having slept on a stone floor, and she rubs the back of her neck. It takes her a moment to realize that her lap is empty, a moment more to notice her sack is gone as well. 

Rey shoots to her feet, instantly awake. Her heart beats in her throat, chest too tight to hold it. The texts. Someone’s taken them. She’s only been a Jedi for a matter of days, and she’s already managed to lose the one remnant of the religion. Hands balled into fists, she strides toward the cell door, intent on hunting down whoever had taken them and giving them a piece of her mind. A soft, harsh sound stops her in her tracks. 

It’s a faint whisper coming from nearby. Rey vacillates between the door and the far corner of the cell, where it sounds like the sound is coming from. She suddenly realizes how dark it’s become. The walls are barely glowing, the light they shed illuminating nothing but what’s directly in front of them. 

Unease grips Rey’s heart, and for a moment, she regrets not bringing her staff with her. “Is someone there?” she asks quietly, taking a half-step closer to the far wall. 

The whispering continues on in an unbroken stream, and Rey begins to make out some of the words. “Safe, safe… keep them safe…” 

Slowly, Rey’s eyes begin to adjust. A pile of what looks like rags comes into view, and Rey leans in to get a better look. 

The rags pull together into the shape of a ragged set of robes, a woman huddled within them. Dirty black hair tangles around her face. Black eyes gleam in the stoneglow. 

“Are you alright?” Rey asks, her sense of unease growing. “Do you need help?” 

The woman’s head whips up as if she’d only then recognized Rey’s presence. “You,” she hisses.

A wave of fear crashes over Rey so cold it stops her heart - and she opens her eyes to find herself back in the cell, alone, book in her lap and her pack beside her. A dream, then, it must have been. But she can still hear a faint whispering in the back of her mind. 

“Safe… keep them safe…” 

~

A pair of First Order foot soldiers walk by, their heads bent close together, voices pitched low. 

“Do you think he’ll really do anything?” one murmurs, glancing furtively around. 

“I don’t know,” the other mutters back. “But I’ll be with him if he does. This whole thing is a mess.” 

The two continue on their way, still talking in hushed tones. 

Merra detaches herself from the shadows and watches them through slitted eyes. It seems Kylo is right to be worried. 

There are other such conversations taking place all over the fleet; they usually clam up as soon as they see her, but Merra’s caught a few of them. None of them ever name the mysterious “he” who seems to be at the head of it, but she has a pretty good idea. 

She spies him sitting at the right hand of the throne as she enters Kylo’s room, a calculated sneer decorating his face. 

The rest of the officers sit quietly, Kylo having summoned all of them for a meeting. 

Hux turns his sneer on Merra as she and the other Knights find places at the table. 

“Supreme Leader,” Hux says abruptly, “what are  _ they  _ doing here? They hold no real rank.” 

Kylo doesn’t hesitate. “They stay.” 

Blaid gives Hux a jaunty salute, which Hux pointedly ignores. 

Kylo stands at the head of the table, partway between it and the massive throne. “We’re not getting any closer to finding the Rebels,” he says. “I propose we send out scouts to nearby planets. They’re out there somewhere, and  _ someone _ knows where they are.” 

“And what makes you think we should waste resources looking for them?” Hux asks. “We should be concentrating on demonstrating our power, seizing control, not hunting down what’s left of the Rebels. What threat do they pose?” 

Kylo stares steadily back at him. “The girl killed Snoke. She has… immense power. The more she learns to harness it, the larger a threat she becomes.” 

Hux’s sneer grows even more pronounced. “With all due respect, I think you’re letting your emotions cloud your judgment in this matter. It wouldn’t be the first time-” 

Suddenly, Hux’s hand flies to his throat. 

Across the table, Merra notes Ash’s fingers clenched together. 

“Your Supreme Leader is speaking,” Ash says.

“Yeah, Huxy,” Merra chimes in, smirking. “Show some respect.” 

Ash relaxes her hand, and Hux slumps over, sucking in deep, ragged breaths.  

Kylo watches the whole exchange without a word. “Send out the scouts,” he orders. He turns away, a clear dismissal, and there’s a brief flurry of activity as the officers leave the room. 

~

Kylo senses them leaving, just as he senses the one Knight who stays behind. 

“Who is this girl, anyways?” Merra asks, sprawled comfortably in her chair. 

Kylo turns, hands clasped loosely behind his back. “No one,” he says. 

_ Not to you, _ Luke whispers. 

Merra raises one eyebrow. “Didn’t sound like no one from the way you talked about her.” 

Luke cackles from whatever recess of Kylo’s mind he’s squirreled away into.  _ I like this one. She’s perceptive.  _

“A scavenger from Jakku,” Kylo relents, ignoring Luke as best he can. He’ll get the hang of it eventually. 

Waving her hand, Merra brushes that explanation to the side. “Yeah, yeah, we all know about the little desert rat. I meant, who is she to you?” 

The question sets Kylo on edge, but he’s careful not to show it. “My equal in the light.” Even Snoke had acknowledged that much; she was far too powerful to be denied. 

Merra tips her head to one side. “And is she?” She doesn’t sound accusatory or concerned, only curious. 

“Is she what?” Kylo asks. 

“Your equal.” 

Kylo hesitates, just for a second. “No.” He shakes his head.  _ She’s better.  _

Merra only nods as if that was exactly the answer she’d been expecting. “Makes sense,” she says, finally pushing back from the table. “I knew those stories about her couldn’t all be true. People are never what you expect them to be.” 

_ Like I said, _ Luke says as he watches her leave through Kylo’s eyes.  _ Perceptive.   _


	4. Chapter 4

The thought of the woman she’d seen in the cell refuses to leave Rey alone. She’d sneaked back onto the Falcon while it was still dark but had lain awake until the early hours of morning puzzling over what had happened. Now, a few hours removed, it seems much easier to convince herself that it really hadn’t been anything but a dream. 

And yet…

Rey sits up with a frustrated huff. She grabs the texts again and makes her way back through the base just as people are beginning to stir. None of them pay her any attention, and soon she slips into the passageway and leaves them behind. 

The cool darkness is welcoming, it soothes her strained nerves. She pauses outside the cell door, half expecting to hear a rasping whisper emanating from the far corner. But of course there’s only silence. 

Rey settles herself back below the symbol and pulls out one of the texts, the same one she’d been looking at before. She opens it up, takes a deep breath, and presses her palm to the page. She lets out the breath, closes her eyes. “Show me,” she breathes. 

For a moment, nothing happens. There’s nothing but the sound of her own heartbeat. Then, a whisper, faint as before but unmistakable.  

“Safe… keep them safe…” 

Rey opens her eyes to near-total darkness. The books are gone. Her pack is gone. Leaning forward, she can make out the same muddled shape of the ragged woman rocking back and forth in the opposite corner. 

Limp, black hair falls in curtains over her face, but this time she seems to sense Rey immediately. “The girl returns,” she says and her voice is stone on stone, grating and harsh. 

Cautiously, Rey gets to her feet. “Who are you?” she asks, taking half a step forward. 

The woman chuckles ruefully. “I could tell you my name, but you would not know it. It faded from memory long ago. Myth, if you must call me something. Myth will do. Myth I am.” 

The closer Rey gets to her, the more of her she can make out. Her face is bisected by a fearsome scar, the flesh surrounding it puckered and pink. It stretches from her hairline to the bottom of her chin, spills down into the collar of her robes. One of Myth’s eyes is dark, limned in an eerie, unnatural yellow while the other is the pale blue of a cloudless sky. 

Myth notices her stare. “Balance is a curse I bear alone,” she rasps. “But I had to. Had to keep them safe.” 

“Keep who safe?” Rey asks. A sliver of unease buries itself in the pit of her stomach. The woman’s strange features are unsettling. Her eyes seem to pierce Rey’s very heart. It seems as if she could lay all her secrets bare with a single glance. 

“All of them,” Myth whispers. “Everyone he would have destroyed.” 

“He?” Rey echoes faintly. 

Myth regards her curiously, a spark of pity in her one pale eye. “My path was once the same as yours, girl. And like you, I did not walk it alone.” 

Rey’s breath catches in her throat. “You mean the connection between me and-” 

“Did you think you were the first?” Myth throws her head back in twisted laughter, and Rey gets a glimpse of blackened, rotten teeth. “No. Settle your fears, child. There is a way to end it. To keep them safe.” 

Hope flares to life inside Rey. Forgetting her earlier anxiety, she moves to sit directly in front of Myth. “How?” she asks. 

“All you have to do is open your eyes. Look closely. It is there, a bridge between your minds. All you have to do is break it.” Myth pulls at her hair, tugging it over the mangled half of her face. “Break it. End it. Keep them safe. It is your duty, as it once was mine.” 

Then Myth is gone, and the cell is as it was before. Rey’s hand rests on the page of the book she still can’t read, and she lets out a long, slow breath. She becomes aware that she isn’t the only one in the cell, and she looks up, expecting to see Myth in front of her. 

Instead it’s Kylo, and for a second, Rey panics. How long has he been there? Had he seen the vision too? 

But he’s looking down at something Rey can’t see, not at her. After a second, he seems to sense her presence and their eyes meet. 

Rey peers closely at him, searching for the link between them. She doesn’t know what she’s supposed to be looking for until she sees it, a silver wisp of energy, barely there but visible, running from his mind to the space above her eyes. She can sense their thoughts passing through it, the bending of time and space that brings them together. How fragile a thing it seems to her. All she would have to do is take hold and pull, and it would be over. He would disappear from her view and she from his. Her mind would be hers again. 

Slowly, she raises her hand, reaches for the wisp-

“Rey?” Kylo asks. 

Rey pauses, her hand outstretched towards him. Looking at him, the enormity of what she’s about to do washes over her. She can end it right here. She won’t risk the Resistance. She can march right up to Poe and tell him to put his fears at rest; there’s no need to worry anymore. 

But she will lose Kylo. Severing this connection will be giving up on him, admitting that there is no light left within him, no hope to save him. It will be assuming his choice is made. 

Rey falters. “I… I can’t.” Her voice is ragged, barely more than a whisper, and tears prick the corners of her eyes. 

Kylo’s brow furrows. He shifts back slightly, looking slightly alarmed. “Can’t what?” 

Instead of answering, Rey turns her head to the side. She doesn’t want to look at the bridge between them anymore; it’s too much of a temptation. The tears that threatened start to fall, making slow tracks down her cheeks. The gentle pressure of Kylo’s thumb wiping them away is unexpected, and it jolts her out of her misery. She shivers at his touch. 

But as quickly as it comes, it goes, and he’s gone with it. 

Rey draws her knees up to her chest, presses her forehead against them, and clenches her teeth on a scream. 

~

Poe stares at the screen, willing it to show him something, anything, that might help them. But it’s still the same patterns of lines and dots it’s always been. His hand tightens around the small beacon that still blinks steadily. It’s as useless as the map while they’re stuck on this planet, but he takes comfort from it anyway. Somewhere out there, Leia wears its twin around her wrist. 

He turns away from the monitor and rakes a hand through his hair. Arming himself with a blaster, he heads outside the base. He’s about to step into the dense forest when he sees Finn emerge from the Falcon.  

Finn spots him a second later and crosses over to meet him. “Hey. Something happening?” 

Poe runs a hand through his hair. “Just need to get out of there for a bit,” he says with a small, self-deprecating smile. “I’m making myself crazy staring at that screen. Thought I’d go see if the old homestead is still around.” 

That seems to catch Finn off guard. “You used to live here?” he asks. He falls into step beside Poe as he walks further into the forest. 

“For a little while, yeah,” Poe confirms. “Never really thought I’d make it back here.” 

Finn clasps him on the shoulder, expression sincere. “I’m glad you did.” 

Poe smiles crookedly at him and pats Finn’s hand on his shoulder. “Yeah. Me too.” 

They fall silent after that as they get deeper into the forest, their natural wariness taking over. Poe’s hand never strays far from his blaster, and Finn sticks close to him. 

Eventually, things start to look familiar. Poe recognizes an old rock formation that looked vaguely like an X-wing. He’d climbed all over it as a child, pretending he was flying into battle. There’s an ancient wooden structure a few yards later on that looks to be on the verge of collapse, just as it had decades ago. 

At the familiar sights, Poe starts to relax. He rubs at the beacon around his wrist, glances at Finn out of the corner of his eye. “What do we do if she doesn’t come back?” he sighs. Normally, he wouldn’t betray any signs of uncertainty, but this is _ Finn.  _ If he can’t be honest with him, then who? 

Finn startles when Poe speaks, lost in his own thoughts. “What? Who?” Then he catches a glimpse of the beacon Poe is fiddling with. “Oh. Leia.” 

Poe nods. He doesn’t like to think about the sorts of circumstances that would prevent Leia from getting back to them, but they can’t stay on Yavin 4 forever. At some point, they would have to face reality. 

Finn’s brow turns stormy as he considers it.  “We can’t just leave,” he mutters. “We don’t know where the First Order are, we could run into them anywhere.” He lapses back into silence. After a minute or two, he speaks again. “I could take the Falcon,” he says. “And lead the First Order away from here, make sure they wouldn’t find us.” 

Poe stops dead in his tracks and blinks un-amusedly at Finn. “We’ve gotta have a talk about this martyr thing.” 

Finn snorts and shakes his head. “I wouldn’t fly straight into their fleet or anything.” They resume walking as he continues, “I would just fly away from here and make sure they see it.” 

“Even if that  _ wouldn’t _ bring the whole First Order down on your tail,” Poe says, one eyebrow arched, “it still wouldn’t work. The Falcon is the only method of transportation we have. You take that, the rest of us are stranded here.” 

Finn heaves a heavy sigh. “You’re right. I know you are, but it doesn’t make it easier to just sit here waiting for them.” His lips twist sourly. There’s no doubt in his mind that they’ll catch up with them eventually. It feels like waiting for the end. 

“I know, buddy.” Poe feels much the same way. Inaction has never agreed with him. 

The cloud of misery that had descended upon them starts to lift a little when Poe spots a familiar place through the trees. 

It’s a modest structure, little more than a well-built shack, but it had been more than enough for Poe. A bare patch of dirt passes for a yard. The only remarkable aspect of the place is a magnificent tree growing on the lee side. Its branches reach toward the sky, its leaves a glimmering green. It had only been a sapling the last time Poe had seen it, but it was a proper tree now, with a trunk so thick he would have been hard-pressed to get his arms around it. 

“Home,” Poe murmurs. 

Finn is about to suggest they take a closer look around - place is clearly uninhabited - when there’s an angry shout from behind them. 

“Take one more step, and I’ll blast you to pieces!” 

Finn and Poe exchange glances. “Rose,” they say in unison. 

Immediately, they’re moving towards her voice, Poe’s blaster already drawn. It’s difficult to navigate through the forest without making any sound, but they do what they can, slipping quickly between the foliage until they find her. 

Rose is carefully training her blaster on a tall, fair-haired stranger. 

Looking utterly unbothered, he turns unerringly to the spot where Finn and Poe emerge from the trees. “You on her side?” he asks, tilting his head towards Rose. 

“Who are you?” Poe asks, flint in his eyes, steel in his voice as he steps forward. 

Finn moves around to stand beside Rose, keeping his eyes trained on the stranger all the while. “What are you doing here?” he hisses at Rose in an undertone. “You’re supposed to be resting.” 

The stranger’s eyebrows quirk upwards. “I apologize, miss. Didn’t mean to get you in trouble with your man there.” 

“Shut up,” Finn snaps. He shifts closer to Rose protectively without even meaning to. 

“Tell me who you are right now, or my friend and I will start blasting.” Poe grinds the words out through gritted teeth. 

The man lifts his arms slowly, palms up in a gesture of surrender. “Hey, hey, relax. I’m unarmed. I don’t want to hurt you, I was just taking a walk when I stumbled across this one here.” He nods at Rose. 

Poe takes a step forward. “If he tries anything, shoot him,” he instructs her. 

Rose nods grimly. She keeps her blaster trained on the man’s chest. Her hands don’t waver once. 

Carefully, Poe approaches the stranger. He flips his coat open, digs through the pockets, pats down the sleeves. When he doesn’t find anything, he steps back, eyes still wary. “Rose,” he says, not taking his gaze from the man in front of him. “Go get some restraints. And some backup. I don’t trust this guy.” 

“Hurtful,” the stranger says, frowning. 

Rose hands her blaster to Finn and takes off back towards the base. 

Poe moves over to Finn, speaking quietly so they won’t be overheard. “What do we do with him? We can’t just let him go now that he knows we’re here, but what if he really is just some guy?” He doesn’t exactly look like First Order, not in his moss-green outfit and dark brown coat that stretches down to his knees. 

Finn frowns, puzzling over what few options are even left to them. Then, a moment of clarity. “I know exactly what we can do with him.” 

~

Rey doesn’t move for a very long time. She can still feel the lingering pressure of Kylo’s thumb on her cheek, wishes she had cut the string when she had the chance. But she doesn’t regret leaving it intact. Not really. Maybe she’s just selfish, but Kylo is the closest thing to not-alone she’s ever had, and she can’t give him up. Not yet. Not even for the Resistance. 

Eventually, she stretches her cramped limbs and paces around the small cell. She doesn’t want to see that woman, whoever she was, again, but she doesn’t relish the idea of struggling through the text again. Unless… 

Her eyes catch on her sack, stuffed to the brim with other books. Surely they would show her something different; they can’t all have the same story. 

Resettling herself in her corner, Rey sits cross-legged and pulls another of the books onto her lap. Her heart sinks as she looks at the words scrawled across the pages. She can’t read this one at all. The markings are totally unfamiliar, and a pang of grief shoots through her. If Luke were here, he would have been able to help her. He must have known all of these languages. 

Another thought strikes her, this one more chilling. What if they’re lost forever now that she’s the only Jedi left? How can she possibly continue a legacy she doesn’t even really understand? 

Rey takes a deep breath and tries to force herself to calm down. If she can’t read them, she’ll find someone who can, even if she has to search the whole galaxy to do it. But in the meantime, she’ll do what she can with what she has. 

She spreads her hand over the book and closes her eyes. “Please,” she whispers. 

The darkness behind her eyelids seems to grow momentarily darker and for a second, Rey thinks she’s falling asleep. Then a gust of wind blows her hair out of her face, carrying the sound of shrieking children with it. 

Her eyes fly open. Almost immediately, she realizes she’s woken on Ach-To. But it’s not the desolate abandon it had been when Luke had lived there. It’s vibrant, brimming with life.

The rock huts bustle with men and women, all of them dressed in sandy brown robes. Some of them carry lightsabers, and Rey feels again the agonizing loss of her own. 

Her attention is quickly swept away by a pack of children that come barreling down the island paths. They are all dressed in clean, white robes and, unlike their adult counterparts, none of them have lightsabers. They weave around the fish-like caretakers that had so disliked Rey, and she moves to get out of their way. None of them seem to notice her. 

A sharp whistle from the top of the hill brings them all to a stumbling halt. The source of the whistle, a heavyset woman with graying hair, starts down the path towards them. “Little monsters, all of you,” she huffs. “Leaving me behind like that.” 

One small boy gives her a big, gap-toothed grin, and she ruffles his hair affectionately as she passes. 

“Now, do you want to learn how to be Jedi or not?” She throws herself down unceremoniously onto a large, flat rock rising out of the mountain. 

She’s met with an enthusiastic chorus of assent, and the children flock around her. They settle themselves on the grass before her in a rough semicircle. There are a few whispered conversations here and there, but for the most part, they stare up at the woman intently, striving to appear studious. 

“You too, child,” the woman says, and she looks right at Rey. 

It takes a second for Rey to register that she’s actually addressing her. But when the woman tilts her head invitingly towards the children, Rey takes a seat at the very back of the group. 

The teacher nods at her in approval before turning her attention back to the group at large. “All right,” she begins, “who can tell me what it means to be a Jedi?” 

Rey smiles faintly to herself, recalling her first lesson with Luke. 

A few eager hands shoot up. 

“Yes, Aoife,” the teacher says, addressing a young girl with red hair and a smattering of freckles. 

“It means we get to have lightsabers!” Her eyes gleam with excitement at the prospect. 

Several of the other children nod vigorously in agreement. 

The teacher makes a long-harried noise in the back of her throat. “That wasn’t quite the answer I was looking for,” she mutters. “But I can’t say it’s wrong. You, Bren, what do you think?” 

One of the boys straightens his shoulders and tilts his chin up. “It means we gots a duty to protect other people who can’t use the Force to save ‘em from the Dark Side,” he says seriously. 

Inclining her head, the teacher glances around at the rest of her pupils. “Closer. Being a Jedi does come with a certain amount of responsibility towards others, but it’s more than that. It is about bringing  _ balance  _ to the universe. We don’t control the Force; we merely use it as a guide. The Dark Side could not exist without the Light, nor the Light without the Dark. They must exist in harmony, neither Dark nor Light but somewhere in between.” 

“Does that mean we don’t have to kill the bad guys?” one child breaks in. 

The teacher’s eyes darken briefly, filled with sorrow. “I’m afraid that we can’t always avoid such things,” she sighs. “Dark is as much a part of balance as life. But we can certainly hope we never have to kill to set the scales right.” 

Rey opens her mouth to speak before she realizes she’s doing it. “How do we do it?” she asks. “How do we find that balance?” 

That gives the teacher pause, her lips pressed into a thin line as she mulls over the question. “You have to learn to rely on others,” she finally says. “It is not a journey one can take alone. You must learn how to trust.” She stares intently into Rey’s eyes. “Though I think that might be difficult for you, yes?” 

Shifting uncomfortably, Rey is about to try and come up with a response when a curtain of black slams down with an iron clang. 

Rey jerks up with a gasp. It takes her a moment to orient herself and realize she’s back in the cells under the base. It takes her a moment more to realize she’s no longer alone. 

There’s a man in the cell across from hers, a fair-haired stranger. Two Rebels stand guard at either end, stone-faced and silent. 

“Must’ve been a good book,” the captive says, head lolling to one side as he regards Rey shrewdly. “You didn’t even look up when they brought me in.” 

Rey gets to her feet, quickly sweeping the texts back into her bag. She doesn’t like his prying eyes. “Who are you?” she asks, uncertainty turning her voice sharp. 

“I know who  _ you  _ are,” he says, ignoring her question. “You’re Rey. So these must be the missing Rebels.” 

The two guards stiffen, and Rey runs hot. 

“How do you know who I am?” she snaps. She’d known Poe was right, that she was dangerous to have around, but it’s still unsettling to have it so plainly spelled out in front of her. 

The man chuckles. “ _ Everyone  _ knows who you are. You’re the girl who found Luke Skywalker.” 

A numb sort of relief floods through Rey, quickly followed by guilt. Nothing to do with Kylo. She hasn’t betrayed them after all. Without a second glance at the prisoner, she starts stalking out of the room. Clearly, she’ll have to find somewhere else to read. 

“Hey,” the man calls after her. He presses himself up against the cell bars until the guards take threatening steps towards him. “Hey, Rey!” 

She stops, teeth gritted, and whirls on him. “What?” 

“You wanted to know who I was,” he says, grinning roguishly up at her. “My name is Thane.” 


	5. Chapter 5

The room, massive as it is, is feeling more and more like a prison. One of his own design, to be sure, but that’s of no comfort. Kylo walks the length of it, hands folded behind his back, stormy brow growing stormier. 

_ Locked away from your own army,  _ Luke says in his mind.  _ What are you afraid of? A little betrayal. I can hardly imagine what that feels like.  _

“You betrayed me first,” Kylo hisses into empty air. 

_ I wouldn’t have killed you.  _ Luke sounds somber enough that Kylo almost believes him.  _ And I’ve paid for that mistake many times over.  _

Ignoring him, Kylo reaches the throne, turns, and starts the long walk back towards the door. What had happened in that last meeting with Rey? Clearly she had been upset, but why? Was it something he had done? 

No, he argues with himself, she had said she couldn’t do something. He’s still puzzling over what that something could have been when the door opens and Hux strides in. Inwardly sighing, Kylo turns to face him. 

“The scouts have found nothing,” Hux says, launching right into his report. 

Looking supremely unbothered, Kylo shrugs. “They haven’t been deployed very long,” he points out. “The Resistance has proven difficult to find.” To both his relief and annoyance. 

Hux grinds his teeth. “It’s a waste of resources trying to find them,” he says. “They’re weak. On the run. Now is the time to seize power.” 

“No.” Kylo turns away from him to look out at the vast expanse of space laid out before them. “You always forget about the girl. As long as she’s with them, the Resistance is a threat.” 

“The girl.” Hux’s voice is pure acid. “I remember. The one who defeated not only Snoke, but his Praetorian Guard as well.” He meets Kylo’s gaze through the reflection in the glass, his own burning. “And you.” 

Kylo’s scar burns, and he has to force himself not to touch it. The memory of their fight comes back to him in a rush, the way they’d worked so seamlessly together, how  _ right  _ it had felt to be by her side…

Hux isn’t done yet. “Interesting how she managed such a feat alone. I wonder… how many of us would like to take vengeance on Snoke’s murderer?” 

Eyes sharpening, Kylo whirls to face him. He’s been through too much not to recognize a threat when he hears one. He lashes out without thinking, slamming Hux against the wall. Conscious will keeps him pinned there as Kylo advances on him slowly. “You should be careful when making accusations like that,” he growls. 

Hux struggles against the invisible power that holds him in place. “Even if you didn’t kill him,” he spits, “you didn’t stop it.” 

Kylo reaches for his saber. He ignites it, holds the red, jagged edge of it to Hux’s neck. “Give me one reason, just one, why I shouldn’t end this now,” he says, voice deceptively calm. 

Hux swallows deeply, face limned with crimson. He doesn’t say a word. 

Movement in the corner of Kylo’s eye distracts him. He turns his head just enough to see its source. 

Rey stands to one side, eyes narrowed as she tries to piece together what she’s seeing. Her gaze is fixed on the lightsaber. 

Kylo hesitates. Stepping back, he throws Hux to the floor and turns away, lip curled. “Get out of my sight.” 

Hux gets painfully to his feet, blood streaming from his nose. He hurries from the throne room with one murderous glance back at Kylo. 

Head bowed, Kylo sheathes his lightsaber and returns it to his hip. He knows that when he looks up, both Hux and Rey will be gone. He looks up anyways. He’s alone. 

~ 

“The weasel-looking one. Hux,” Merra says. “He’s the one behind it. Has to be.” She reclines her chair back until it balances on two legs, arms folded across her chest as she watches the others. 

They’re gathered once more in Blaid’s room, all of them having heard much the same mutterings as Merra. Rebellion is stirring. 

“Agreed,’ Osk mutters darkly. “Which does not bode well for us.” 

Dune tilts his head in silent question. 

“Hux controls the army,” Osk says grimly. “If he’s the one instigating, you can be sure he has the support of many of them. The five of us will not be able to hold all of them off.”

“That’s assuming all of them are on his side,” Merra points out. “Which might not be the case.” 

Osk slowly shakes his head. “You’ve seen the size of his forces. He only needs a fraction to be successful.” 

Merra drops her chair back to the ground and worries at her bottom lip. Nervously, she thinks of the massive fleet that surrounds them, not to mention the hundreds of soldiers aboard their own ship. They may be powerful, but they can’t take on a whole army. “So what do we do?” she asks. 

Blaid, who has spent the rest of the conversation staring out the suite’s window, turns to face them. “Something about him is different, isn’t it? We’ve all seen it. Kylo’s not the same as he used to be.” 

An uncomfortable silence settles between all of them. They can’t deny the change, nor do they have any grand schemes to come out out of this alive. 

“There is a simple answer,” Ash says, and all of them fix their eyes on her. “We betray him.”

~

Rey finds Poe and Finn deep in conversation with Rose and Connix, all of them crowded around one of the old terminals. 

“You didn’t see anything?” Poe presses, looking intently at Connix. 

She shakes her head. “If I had, I would have told you. Either this guy’s ship was cloaked, or he was on the planet before we got here.” 

Finn shakes his head. “We didn’t see any sign of a ship. Did you, Rose?” 

Rose shakes her head. “That doesn’t mean one wasn’t there,” she ventures. “But he definitely could have been here before us.” 

It’s at that moment that Rey chooses to break in. “Who’s Thane?” she asks. 

As one, the group turns to look at her. 

“Thane?” Poe echoes. 

“The prisoner,” Rey says. “That man in the cell. What’s he doing here?” 

Finn glances between Poe and Rose. “We found him this morning. We have no idea who he is or where he comes from. His name is Thane?” 

“That’s what he told me.” Rey shrugs one shoulder.

“We don’t know what side he’s on either,” Rose puts in uneasily. 

Rey shifts her weight from one foot to the other. “Well, he knows who we are. He recognized me.” 

Sighing, Poe closes his eyes and puts a hand to his forehead. “Great,” he mutters. “All right, no one goes near him until we figure out what to do with him. Connix, make sure everyone knows. We’ll keep the guards on him, but that’s it.” 

Connix snaps a smart salute before heading off to do just that. 

“What  _ are _ we going to do with him?” Rose asks. 

No one says anything for a long minute. 

Poe has just opened his mouth to say something when they’re interrupted. One of the Rebels bursts into the room, panting. “Ship incoming.” 

Gritting his teeth, Poe kicks the terminal with his foot. “Useless,” he says. Then, to the others, “Everyone stays inside. Arm yourselves, and get ready to fight.” 

Instantly, they all get moving, scrambling for weapons. 

Rey’s staff is still in the Falcon, and she curses herself for leaving it. Then Finn is handing her a blaster and she nods at him gratefully, hand curling around the grip. 

Members of the Resistance line the main hall leading to the entrance. All of them are deadly silent, every weapon they have trained at the doors. Poe sneaks through the corridor to the front, his small group behind him. They crouch in the small amount of shelter afforded by another doorway and wait. 

For a while, there’s only silence. Two loud thuds shatter it, the door shuddering beneath their force. 

“I know you’re in there!” an unfamiliar voice calls. “My name is Lando Calrissian. I’m with the Resistance.” 

Poe starts. He half-rises from his crouch, brow furrowed. 

“What are you doing?” Finn hisses from behind. 

“Lando Calrissian,” Poe mutters. “I know that name.” 

Another loud thud. 

“We don’t know he is who he says he is,” Finn points out, adjusting his grip on his blaster. It’s still trained on the door. 

A final thud, this one followed by a plaintive roar. 

Rey is on her feet before she knows it. “Chewie?” 

The man claiming to be Lando laughs. “Leia sends her regards.”

“Open the door,” Rey says. “If he’s with Chewie, we can trust him.” 

For a second, she thinks Poe will refuse, but he only nods. Shoulders tense, finger still on the trigger, he disengages the lock and opens the door. 

No blaster fire greets them, no First Order officers are lying in wait. Instead there’s a cheerful looking man with a small crew huddled at his back. And beside him- 

“Chewie!” Rey hurries forward, handing her blaster off to Finn. She wraps her arms around Chewbacca as far as they’ll go, squeezing tightly. 

He makes a low, rumbling sound and hugs her back just as enthusiastically. 

“I’ve missed you too, you big furball,” she says. 

Poe offers his hand to Lando. “Sorry about that,” he says as they shake. “We’re all a bit jumpy around here. Found someone sneaking around earlier, got us all on edge.” 

“You’re right to be careful,” Lando says, brushing off Poe’s apology. His face darkens when he hears the news. “Who?” 

“We don’t have any idea,” Poe admits. 

Finn barely hears their conversation. The better part of his attention is fixed on the slice of forest he can see through the still-open door, or, more specifically, the white mass of Lando’s ship encased in the trees. His earlier plan plays through his mind. If he takes the Falcon now, he could keep the First Order away from Yavin 4. And now that they have a second ship, the Resistance wouldn’t be stranded after all. 

~ 

For a while, the base is in an uproar. There are greetings to be made, introductions to be exchanged, stories to be shared. Lando fills them all in on what Leia is up to and the forces she’s been able to muster to their side. They’re sticking with her, he says, to keep the First Order’s attention away from Yavin 4 for as long as they can. Lando’s trip was risky enough; more than one would practically be begging for their enemies to find them. 

Rey sneaks off to the Falcon soon after they arrive. She’s all too aware of how much information is flowing freely, and the knowledge that Kylo could show up at any time eats at her. 

_ If you had ended things when you had the chance, you wouldn’t be worrying now,  _ she tells herself. Yet she can’t bring herself to regret the decision.

Sighing, she sinks to the floor and stares up at the ceiling. She wants to escape into her texts, but she doesn’t want to go back down to the cells now that Thane is down there. Her head lolls to one side, her eyes catching on the books. 

She hooks her foot around the strap of the pack and hauls it over to her. There’s no harm in trying it right here in the Falcon. 

Opening up a new book, Rey takes one last look around to make sure she’s alone. When she confirms she is, she presses her hand to the page and closes her eyes. There’s nothing, no growing darkness, no wind in her hair, nothing to suggest she’s anywhere other than the Falcon. Sure enough, Rey opens her eyes to find herself sitting on her own blankets, sack full of books beside her. 

Grumbling to herself, Rey gets to her feet and slings the sack over her shoulder. She’ll just have to do her best to ignore Thane. She’s about to go when Finn steps into the room. 

“You okay?” Finn asks, leaning against the wall, hands shoved in his pockets. 

Rey’s head tips to one side. “Yes,” she says. “Why wouldn’t I be?” 

Finn shifts a bit, shrugs one shoulder. “Noticed you leaving is all,” he mumbles. 

A sudden surge of affection for him washes over her, and Rey throws her arms around him in a tight hug. “I’m fine,” she says softly. “I promise.” 

He clings to her tightly for a moment. When they separate, he notices her pack. “What’s that for?” 

Rey adjusts the strap with a wry smile. “Jedi stuff,” she says. 

Finn lifts his eyebrows. “Sounds important. I’ll let you get back to it, then.” With a nod and one last smile, he leaves. 

Rey waits a moment before following him back into the base. She skirts the edges of the new crowd, a satisfied thrill running down her spine when she sees how much their numbers have grown. It’s reassuring to have such concrete proof that they still have allies out there. 

The sounds of the commingled crews fade behind Rey as she plunges back into the mountain’s depths. 

The guards shift defensively when Rey enters the cavern. “You shouldn’t be here,” one of them says. “Poe said not to let anyone near him.” 

“What are you doing here anyways?” the other puts in. 

Rey pulls her pack around and opens it up to reveal the stacks of books. It’s worked once, she might as well try it again. “Jedi stuff?” 

The two guards exchange glances before shrugging and resuming their posts. 

With a polite smile, Rey moves to her customary spot in the first cell. She can feel Thane’s curious eyes on her the whole time, but she refuses to so much as look his way. Instead, she places all her focus on the book, shutting her eyes, and putting her hand to the pages. 

This time, she wakes somewhere hot and foreign. It’s underground, but a gaping hole in the stone roof lets in plenty of light. Steam billows from buckets of water strewn around the room. Fires burn in small ovens ringing the place. There are small outcroppings of rock set in front of each, various tools and scraps of metal strewn about haphazardly. 

A squat, curious creature stands in front of the forge closest to Rey. It’s a plump little thing with ears that stick straight up on either side of its wrinkled brown head. As it turns to face her, Rey glimpses a drooping, bulbous nose and fat lips glistening with sweat. It carries something in its scoop-like hands, seemingly unbothered by the heat. 

It doesn’t pay Rey any attention until it’s deposited its cargo on one of the stone outcroppings. Then it looks up at her, lips pulled down in a sorrowful expression. “Broken,” it pouts. 

Rey peers at the object, but it shakes its head and reaches up to push her face away. “Ow!” she protests. “What-?” 

It points at the next outcropping over where Rey can see something glinting. “Broken,” the creature insists. 

Curious now, Rey moves towards it. Her heart stutters in her chest when she makes it out. It’s a lightsaber, cracked in half. She doesn’t notice the creature has moved with her until it makes a wounded noise.

“Broken,” it moans again. 

“Yes,” Rey agrees. She sighs sadly. 

Her grief seems to motivate her strange companion. “You fix!” it says, nodding enthusiastically. 

“What?” Rey splutters. “I can’t fix this! I don’t know how.” 

“You fix!” it insists. “I help.” Slapping a hand against its chest, it approaches the broken lightsaber. Carefully, it extracts the kyber crystal gleaming inside and waddles back over to its own station. 

Rey watches it go with bemusement.  

It looks up at her with a fuff. “Come! I help, you fix.” 

Rey moves to the rock acting as a workstation and finally sees what the creature had been carrying before. It’s a small cylinder that doesn’t look like much. Perring down, Rey realizes it’s hollow; she can see right through to the other side. A paddle-like hand slaps at her face again. 

“Watch,” the creature snaps. 

Rubbing her cheek a tad resentfully, Rey obeys. 

The creature is surprisingly graceful as it works. It measures out lengths of wire, trims them, strings the tube up with them. In minutes, it crafts a small switch that it attached to the outside. It toggles it up and down a few times before giving a small nod of satisfaction even though Rey can’t see that it does anything. 

Then, reverently, it picks up the kyber crystal. 

Rey sits up, her interest sparked. 

The creature assures itself that she’s looking before it carefully slips the crystal into the intricate nest of wires. Then it places two, thin bands around either end of the tube, narrowing the openings. It offers Rey the small tube, holding it carefully. “Try.” 

It’s only natural for Rey to grab it around the middle as she would her staff. Her thumb rests near the switch, and she takes a deep breath. She flips the switch. 

And her eyes open on a dark cave. Heart pounding in her chest, she leaps to her feet, startling the guards. Without pausing to apologize (or indeed say anything at all), Rey clutches the book to her chest and dashes out of the cave. 

“What  _ is  _ in those books of hers?” Thane smirks. 


	6. Chapter 6

Lando lounges back in his chair, scratching at his chin. “A strange prisoner,” he muses. “What to do with him.” 

Poe fiddles with the beacon, but he finds he doesn’t need it as much anymore, at least for the moment. Lando himself is enough reassurance that Leia is still out there fighting. 

Grimacing, Lando leans forward. “The best solution,” he says, looking at Finn, Rose, and Poe, “would be to kill him. That’s your safest option.” 

“Trust me,” Poe says, rubbing the bridge of his nose, “we’ve considered it.” 

“And you haven’t because you don’t really know that he’s a threat...” Lando guesses. 

Rose nods. “There wasn’t anyone else with him that I saw. He seems to be on his own, whoever he is.” 

Lando clicks his tongue against his teeth. “What would Leia do?” he muses. 

Poe grins in wry amusement. “I’ve been asking myself that a lot lately,” he admits. “But right now, I think she’d tell us to stop sitting around whining about how she isn’t here.” 

With a snort of amusement, Lando gets to his feet. “I think you’re right. And I think it’s about time you showed me around this base of yours.” He sweeps his arm out to indicate the sprawling passages of the base. 

Playing the part of tour guide, Rose and Poe both start leading Lando around the complex, introducing him to other Rebels as they go. 

Finn stays where he is, too absorbed in his own thoughts to join them. The Falcon will be alone and unattended for a few more hours. He has time to make his plans. 

~

Rey pulls out the broken halves of her lightsaber, the kyber crystal nestled safely inside. She lays it gently on the floor and picks up her staff, examining it. She twists off the ends, leaving her with a tube considerably longer than the one the creature had possessed, but just as hollow. 

Heartbeat rising, Rey looks from the crystal to her staff. She doesn’t have anything else that she needs, but that doesn’t worry her unduly. She’s a scavenger. And she’s on a ship full of parts. 

Rey snaps into action. She pilfers a switch mechanism from a collection of spare parts in the Falcon’s maintenance room. The wiring is a little more complicated. Eventually, she decides to take the risk of doing this under the corridor’s limited lighting. Holding her breath, Rey carefully extracts what she’ll need after making sure the power has been disconnected. The last thing she needs to do is fry herself on what could very well be a fool’s errand.  

When she has everything she thinks she needs, Rey returns to her small section of the Falcon. The broken lightsaber and dismantled staff are there to greet her. 

Taking a deep breath, Rey forces herself to concentrate. She attaches the switch to one part of her staff, the place where her thumb will naturally fall. Then, so carefully she hardly seems to breathe, she picks up the kyber crystal. 

It gleams softly in her hands, a dark faultline running down the middle. 

Rey bites her lip. She doesn’t know if that’s supposed to be there or if it will affect her construction in any way, but she still has to try. Rey inserts it into her staff and does her best to string it up exactly as the creature had done. It’s difficult work in such a small space, and by the time Rey has finished, her fingers are cramped. 

But at last, it’s done. Her staff lies heavy in her hands, the crystal concealed inside. Her thumb hovers over the switch, but she can’t bring herself to flip it. If she’s failed, she doesn’t want to know. 

Eventually, though, curiosity eats at her enough to bring her to her feet. She holds it out in front of her, tightens her grip, and pushes the switch. 

Crackling energy springs from both sides of the staff, electric blue and deadly. It doesn’t look quite as it should though. Instead of the round edges she’s used to, the light appears ragged, broken-looking. The beam seemed as if it could fall apart at any moment. 

It looks-

“Like mine,” Kylo says, breaking into Rey’s thoughts. 

She swings around, the blade moving with her. 

Instinctively, he ducks underneath it. 

Rey turns it off and the room is plunged back into darkness. “Sorry,” she says, a touch sheepishly. 

“I’m impressed,” Kylo says, brushing away her apology. “Not just anyone can make a lightsaber. I should have known you could.” 

Rey bristles slightly. “What’s that supposed to mean?” 

It takes Kylo a moment to answer, like he’s picking his words carefully. “It means you’re unlike anyone else I’ve ever met,” he finally says. 

“Oh,” Rey says quietly. After a minute, she adds, “You’re unlike anyone else I’ve ever met too.” 

Kylo smiles sourly. “I know.” 

Rey sits down, staff still clutched in her hands. She wants to say something, but she doesn’t have words. She’s still shocked that she’d managed to make a lightsaber, flawed as it is. 

“Why are you always alone?” Kylo asks suddenly. 

Rey is startled as much by the question as she is by the sound of his voice. “What?” 

Kylo clears his throat. “There’s no one with us. With you. Ever since you left with the Resistance, you’ve been alone.” 

Bristling again, Rey tightens her grip on her staff. “Maybe I just didn’t want you prying in on my private conversations,” she snaps. 

Understanding dawns in Kylo’s eyes. “They found out,” he says. “They know about us.” 

“There isn’t an us,” Rey hisses. Her eyes flicker back to that energy between them. The urge to break it sweeps through her for a second, but she won’t solve anything by running away. Shoulders slumping, she bows her head. “Yes,” she quietly admits. “They know about us.” 

Kylo looks away. 

“You’re alone too,” Rey observes. 

“I’ve always been alone,” Kylo mutters, head bowed, hands curling into fists. 

Slowly, hesitantly, Rey reaches out to cover his hands with her own. She shivers at the sensation, even across galaxies. “Not always,” she whispers. “I’m here now.” 

Kylo pulls his hands from under hers, lips curled slightly. “Not by choice.” 

“That’s not true,” Rey says after a long pause. 

Looking skeptical, Kylo meets her gaze. 

Rey worries at her bottom lip. Every instinct in her is screaming not to trust him; he’s turned on her before. Who’s to say he won’t do it again? But nothing about them makes sense. She can’t help but take risks when it comes to him. 

“If you look closely,” she says, “you can see what’s between us. The connection. You can break it if you want to.” Her eyes don’t leave his as she tells him. 

Kylo’s eyes narrow, roam around, and widen slightly as he catches sight of it, the thin thread of energy that is their bond. “How long have you known?” he asks. 

Rey shrugs one shoulder. “A few days,” she admits. 

“And you didn’t break it,” Kylo murmurs. “Why?” 

That is the same question Rey has been asking herself the past few days, but it’s not any easier to answer now that he’s looking at her. “I didn’t want to,” she finally says. “I didn’t want to be alone again.” 

For a moment, they sit in silence. 

“Thank you,” Kylo says quietly. 

When Rey next looks up, there is only empty space. 

~

Kylo finds himself alone once more, but oddly enough, not quite lonely. Rey does that to him somehow, soothes an ache so bone deep it seems inborn. He leans back in his chair and closes his eyes, wanting to stay wrapped in the sensation as long as he can. 

Of course, peace can never last. 

Kylo opens his eyes to find Hux peering down at him with something like triumph glittering in his eyes. 

“We’ve found the Resistance.” 

Kylo’s blood runs cold. “What?” he asks. He’s lying. He has to be. Rey hadn’t shown any sign of anything being wrong. Of course, he can’t tell Hux anything about that, so he gets to his feet. “Show me.” 

Inclining his head, Hux leads him to the bridge. 

A small army has gathered there, all the officers, the Knights, Stormtroopers, all of them staring at a single, glowing beacon. It hovers over Yavin 4, pulsing steadily. 

“Set course to Yavin 4,” Hux barks.

Instantly, there’s a flurry of activity. Officers report to their stations, Stormtroopers start forming ranks, the Knights trade glances among themselves, side-eying Kylo. 

Kylo stands in the middle of it all, unmoving. His brain is working too slowly. The Resistance was fine. Rey wasn’t scared, so he shouldn’t be either. But Rey must not have known. And now the First Order is coming for them. 

A hand seizes his arm. Kylo jumps, jerked away from his scattered thoughts. 

Merra stares up at him intensely, her grip iron-tight around his wrist. “Get out of here,” she hisses. “It’s a trap.” 

Brow furrowed, Kylo stays right where he is. “...a trap?” 

Then Hux is turning back to face them, just as they jump into hyperspace. “Well, Supreme Leader? Any objections?” One corner of his mouth curls into a smirk. 

Kylo stares back at him. He should say no. He needs to say no. 

The rest of the army is watching them, a nervous sort of energy filling the room. 

Kylo eyes them warily. “I won’t stop you,” he says through gritted teeth. 

Hux’s smirk grows bigger. “I don’t believe you.” he addresses the army at large. “Seize him!” 

Immediately, Kylo goes for his saber. Before he can get hold of it, it flies away from him - into Ash’s waiting hand. “What are you doing?” he asks, heart a lead weight in his chest. 

Ash doesn’t respond, just tightens her grip on his lightsaber. 

Blaidd moves up beside her. He won’t quite meet Kylo’s eyes, but he makes no move to help him.

With a roar of anger, Kylo lashes out at the Stormtroopers closing in on him. The strength of the Force sends some of them flying; others draw their blasters. One of them gets a little too close, and Kylo sends him stumbling backwards with a solid kick. 

“Fire!” Hux shrieks. “What are you waiting for, damn you? Fire!” 

Kylo spins, trying to face all directions at once. He can stop one blast, two, maybe three, but not this many. Desperation urges him to at least try. 

Merra steps up beside him, and for a second, Kylo despairs. How can he fight against his own Knights as well? 

But she only deflects a stun ray, gives him a grin and a nod. 

With a fresh burst of confidence, Kylo sends another barrage of stun rays bouncing harmlessly into walls (or, in some cases, other Stormtroopers). He and Merra fight manically, but they are two against an army, and eventually Merra goes down with a yelp. 

She lies paralyzed on the ground. 

Distracted, the next wave of stun rays proves too much for Kylo. One of them strikes his shoulder, and he falls to his knees with a grunt. 

Immediately, Ash is there, holding his own lightsaber against him. 

Kylo glares up at her, but he’s still too disoriented from being stunned. All he can do is watch as Hux gives commands. 

“To Yavin 4,” Hux says, hands clasped behind his back. “Where we’ll crush what remains of the Resistance.” His eyes slide slyly towards Kylo. “And all who stand with them.”  


	7. Chapter 7

It takes a while before Rey moves again. She wishes Kylo didn’t have such an effect on her, but she can’t deny that he does. Scowling to herself, she grabs one of the Jedi texts and makes for the caves. It’s the only place she thinks she’ll be able to clear her head. 

Thankfully, most of the Resistance members are too busy catching up with the new arrivals to pay her much attention. She doesn’t think she could handle talking right then. 

Rey couldn’t tell exactly when it was that she sensed something was wrong. All she knew is that a chill wormed its way into her bones as she walked further and further down the passage, hugging the text to her chest as if to ward off the unease. 

Her guard is up as she steps into the main room - an unnecessary caution, as it turns out. The cells are empty, the two guards lying dead, faces frozen in twin masks of surprise. Thane is nowhere to be seen. 

~

Finn glances back over his shoulder as he makes his way out of the base.  _ This is for the best _ , he tells himself. Poe will forgive him. Eventually. Maybe. 

All he knows is that the Resistance is worth saving. 

He’s halfway to the Millenium Falcon when a voice stops him in his tracks. He turns to see Rose hurrying after him. 

“Where are you sneaking off to?” she asks. Her eyes flick to the ship beyond, suspicion creeping over her face. 

Finn opens opens his mouth, but finds himself without an excuse. 

Rose’s expression falls. “You were sneaking off,” she says. “Again.” 

“I wasn’t running away,” Finn says hurriedly. “But we can’t just sit here and wait for the First Order to arrive. Someone has to do something.” 

For a moment, Rose only stares at him. 

Finn stares back, unsure what he’ll do if she calls an alarm, but she only nods. 

“You’re right,” she says. “And whatever you’re planning, count me in.” 

Finn only hesitates for a moment. Then he nods and tilts his head towards the Falcon. “Any idea how to fly this thing?” 

Rose rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling. “What would you do without me?” 

The two of them are just about to board the ship when another familiar voice halts them in their tracks. “Finn? Rose! What are you two doing?” Poe is striding towards them, a look on his face that says he already has a pretty good idea what they’re doing and he doesn’t like it. 

Finn curses under his breath. “Poe-” he beings, but he doesn’t get a chance to concoct his lie. A horrendous rumbling interrupts him, and all three of them look up at the sky in dawning horror. 

First Order ships slam into view, looming large over the planet. 

For a second, all three of them stand completely frozen, unable to process their worst nightmare come true. 

Poe is the first to snap back into action. “Get everyone out of the base,” he says, voice faint. “We have to evacuate. Now.” 

The urgency in his tone gets Finn and Rose moving, all three of them breaking into a run. 

They can’t win. They don’t have the time or resources to flee the First Order again, and all of them know it. But damn if they won’t put up a fight. 

~

The First Order ships make a graceless landing on a part of the planet not far from the Resistance base. 

Thane is waiting to meet them, a grin on his face, binary beacon clutched in one hand. Once cloaked, its inner workings now lay exposed, the signal pulsing steadily into the atmosphere. “I had started to think you weren’t going to show up,” he calls as the dreadnought’s doors open. His smile falls slightly as Hux emerges but re-forms at the sight of the rest of the Knights - until Merra and Kylo are dragged out in Force-suppressing cuffs. 

“What’s going on?” Thane asks. 

Hux moves to stand in front of him, hands clasped behind his back. “The First Order thanks you for your service,” he says. “Your precious master has proven himself a traitor to our cause. You are free to join him, if you retain old loyalties. I’m sure we have another pair of cuffs.” 

Thane swallows, glancing from Kylo’s bowed head to the smug superiority radiating from Hux. He lifts his chin. “I’m loyal to the First Order,” he says. 

Hux gives him a nod of approval before turning to face the Resistance base. “Then let’s finish this.” 

~

The Resistance are caught in the worst possible moment. They are nowhere near prepared, and even if they had been, the First Order outnumbers them twenty to one. It is the perfect setting for a slaughter. 

They can’t fight, and they can’t run. The one option left to them turns Poe’s stomach. 

Surrender. 

It is what Hux calls for, standing outside their base, eyes ablaze with triumph. “Come out!” he calls. “Or will you die in there all at once?” 

“If we go out there,” Finn mutters, “they’ll kill us anyways.” 

“I know,” Poe says grimly. But he also knows Hux won’t hesitate to bring the whole base down on their heads. At least in the open, they stand more of a chance. 

The Resistance waits for his decision with bated breath. 

Letting out a long, slow breath, Poe lowers his blaster, raises his hands, and steps out of the base. 

Swapping identical looks of despair, the rest of the Resistance follows. 

The Stormtroopers make quick work of stripping them of their weapons and herding them into rows. Blasters to their heads force them to the ground, arms clasped behind them, hearts full. 

Hux turns to Kylo with an almost manic grin. He gestures to the rows of defeated Resistance fighters. “You see, Ren, the glorious Resistance!” He leans in close, lip curled. “You chose the wrong side.” Then he straightens, scans the faces of the Resistance members intently. His countenance darkens as he passes over more and more of them without finding what he’s looking for. 

“The girl!” he screams to the crowd at large.  _ “Where is the girl?”  _

~ 

Rey kneels beside the newly-empty base, clutching her staff to her chest. Her heart beats wildly, mind moving at 1,000 miles a minute. What can she do, one against so many? She stays frozen to the ground, watching in horror as Hux grabs a blaster from the nearest trooper and presses it to Kylo’s head. 

~

“I know you’re watching!” Hux shouts. “Give yourself up, and perhaps I’ll consider letting him live.” His eyes rove constantly, raking the woods, the Rebels, even his own troops. She  _ must  _ be somewhere. 

Then, movement. 

A figure creeps out from behind the Millenium Falcon without weapon, head held high. “Let them go,” she demands. “And I’ll come with you. I give you my word.” 

Hux blinks impassively. “Shoot her,” he orders. 

Kylo lurches forward, ignoring the blaster at his temples, strains against his bonds. “No!” 

One of the troopers takes careful aim and fires straight at Rey’s heart. 

The bolt passes through her form, and the projection flickers out of existence, the bolt slamming harmlessly into the ground. 

“Your mind tricks won’t work on me, girl,” Hux sneers. 

Kylo slumps in relief. 

When there’s no sign of further movement, Hux tries another tactic. He marches forward until the barrel of his gun rests squarely between Finn’s eyes. 

Finn doesn’t flinch, glaring up at him with unfettered hatred. 

“Come out,” Hux repeats, ignoring Finn. “Or watch your friends die.” 

“She won’t,” Kylo rasps. His glare matches Finn’s, eyes lit with a strange fire. 

Hux pauses, considers him momentarily. He strides back over to him and rests a hand on his shoulder, almost friendly. Then he drives his fist into Kylo’s gut. When Kylo doubles over, gasping for breath, Hux brings his knee smashing into his nose. 

Kylo collapses to the ground, blood cascading over his mouth as he struggles to breathe. 

Kneeling, Hux tangles his fingers in Kylo’s hair and hauls him up by it, tilting his head back so he can leer down at him. “I can see why you liked pushing me around so much.” His smirk widens. “It is rather… intoxicating.” 

Kylo says nothing, chest still heaving. 

Perhaps, Hux thinks with no small amount of satisfaction, he’d cracked a couple of ribs with that punch. He jerks his chin at two nearby Stormtroopers in silent command. 

They drag Kylo to his feet. He stands with his head bowed, blood dripping to the grass below. 

“Very well,” Hux shouts, once again addressing his invisible audience. “You’ve had your chance!” He retrieves his blaster and levels it at Kylo’s chest. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this,” he says, almost breathless with anticipation. 

Hux squeezes the trigger. 

~

Rey doesn’t think. She can’t. There’s only one thing in her head, a name that she cries out over and over. He’s a part of her, and she’s a part of him. She can’t let him die. 

Acting on instinct alone, Rey throws her hand out in front of her. She screams, feral desperation, as she rips through their connection, feels space shredding into meaningless fragments around her. 

The bolt stops. Mere inches from Kylo’s heart, it hovers suspended in the air. 

Hux’s eyes bulge with disbelief. 

With another primal scream, Rey sends the bolt flying back the way it had come. 

The blaster explodes in Hux’s hand. 

Taking advantage of the stunned confusion, Poe throws himself at the nearest Stormtrooper. He wrestles for his blaster, grabs it, and dispatches him before anyone really knows what’s happening. 

Then the rest of the Resistance rises up like a wave, all of them surging towards the stunned Stormtroopers. 

Hux cradles his injured hand against his chest, shrieking. “Kill them! Kill them all!” 

Kylo pulls desperately at his cuffs, but they remain as unyielding as ever. 

Black pushes at the edges of Rey’s vision, but she knows she can’t give in to her exhaustion. There’s still a battle to be won. She forces herself to move, saberstaff ignited, carving a path through the battlefield. She reaches Kylo and cleaves the cuffs in two with a single swing. 

Instantly, Kylo is on his feet, reaching out to touch her as if to make sure she’s really there, not just another illusion. “Rey.” 

“Ben.” She leans into the hand against her cheek and allows her eyes to close for the briefest of moments. 

They’re interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. “Little help?” Merra holds up her own cuffed hands. 

Rey’s eyes narrow. “Who is she?” she asks Kylo. 

“A friend,” Kylo says. “We can trust her.” 

Rey hesitates a little, then nods. Her saberstaff makes equally quick work of Merra’s bonds. Only then does she realize the empty space at Kylo’s hip. “Where’s your lightsaber?” she asks. 

Kylo’s face darkens. “It was taken.” He wipes congealed blood from his face, eyes scanning the battlefield for a telltale column of red. “I’m going to get it back.” 

Rey and Merra plunge themselves into the fray, Rey’s saber taking down one Stormtrooper after another, Merra’s pilfered blaster proving equally deadly.

Kylo makes single-mindedly for Ash. 

She fights wildly, the lightsaber largely unfamiliar in her hands. When she spots Kylo, she falters, and a blast from a Resistance fighter misses her by scant inches. Ash raises the saber to deflect the next shot, and Kylo takes the chance to move in closer. 

Before Ash can realize how close he’s come, he steps inside her guard, hand snapping closed around her wrist. 

Ash shrinks back slightly, glaring at him. “Let go of me,” she hisses, but there’s an undercurrent of fear to her defiance. 

“You have something that belongs to me.” Kylo tightens his grip on her wrist. 

Ash bites back a gasp of pain. “You don’t deserve to wield it. You betrayed us for some  _ scavenger.”  _ She spits the last word, voice full of venom. 

“Yes,” Kylo says, bending her wrist further. “I did.” 

Ash’s mouth opens, but nothing comes out except a strangled moan. Numb fingers open, send the saber falling to the ground. 

Kylo catches it before it lands. Power surges through him as he ignites it, Ash’s face pale in its glow. 

Defiant to the end, she glares stubbornly back at him. 

Kylo stares for a long moment, memories piling up inside his mind. All he can see before him is the little girl she used to be. “Go,” he finally snarls. “Get off this planet, and take the rest of the Knights with you. I don’t want to kill you.” 

For a moment, Ash doesn’t move, as if she’s expecting some kind of trick. Then her lip curls contemptuously. “You were always weak.” She turns, then, and is gone, melting into the rest of the fighters. 

~

Even with Rey, even with Kylo, the Resistance doesn’t stand a chance. When the initial surprise of the attack has worn off, when the Stormtroopers have rallied, the Rebels begin to lose ground. Too many of them lay dead or dying, too few are left to fight. 

Finn, Poe, and Rose are pressed back to the doors of the Falcon, a small cluster of remaining Rebels around them. Lando fights his way towards them with what remains of his crew, Chewie beside him. 

“We can’t keep this up much longer,” Lando yells. 

Poe nods grimly. “Anyone got any brilliant ideas?” he asks. 

The only answer is a chorus of blaster shots. 

“That’s what I thought,” Poe sighs. 

“We keep fighting,” Finn says, face set with determination. 

Poe claps Finn on the shoulder. “May the Force be with us,” he says. 

The smile Finn gives him is strained but genuine. 

A line of Stormtroopers advances, blasters aimed at the crumbling Resistance. They step forward - and disappear in a hail of gunfire. 

A squadron of X-wings scream down from the sky above, sweeping dangerously close to the treetops before pulling around for another pass. 

“What the hell?” Poe gapes up at the X-wings.

“Leia!” Rose says, face stretched wide in a grin. “It must be. She’s found more allies!” 

The X-wings pepper the battlefield with gunfire again, Stormtroopers diving for cover. They don’t have time for another attack as a squadron of TIE fighters take to the sky, but the Resistance is heartened nonetheless. 

“Back into it!” Poe yells. He leads the charge from the relative shelter of the Falcon’s hull, blasting at troopers with a wild shout. 

Other fighters come streaming out of the trees, Resistance symbol emblazoned on their uniforms. They join the ragtag group, firing away at the Stormtroopers who are beginning to fall back towards their own ship. 

Hux watches, infuriated. The tide of the battle is slowly beginning to turn. He’s not going to be here when it drowns them. “Ready my ship,” he snaps to the nearest Stormtrooper. 

They snap a hasty salute and scurry onto the dreadnought. 

Hand still cradled to his chest, Hux moves to board the ship himself - only to be stopped by a crackling red beam. Pale face gone even paler, he follows the beam to see the man holding it. “Kylo.” 

Kylo doesn’t say a word, just takes half a step closer. 

Hux retreats, all too aware of the saber’s proximity. “Don’t,” he says. “Don’t kill me. You’re one of them now, aren’t you? Fighting for the Light? The good? You can’t really be one of them.” His eyes harden. “You’re a murderer.” 

“So killing you won’t make much of a difference.” Kylo has just enough time to see pure fear fill Hux’s face before he runs him through. Kylo turns the saber off, and Hux’s body falls gracelessly to the ground. He stares down at it numbly. Whatever else he might have been, Hux was right in the end. Kylo is a murderer. He has no place in the Light. 

“Kylo!” Merra calls from behind him. 

Kylo turns to see her stumbling towards him, Rey’s arm slung over her shoulder. Merra’s arm is about her waist, and she’s practically dragging Rey. Kylo’s heart stops. “What happened?” he asks, hurrying towards them. 

Merra gratefully passes Rey off to him. “She just collapsed,” she pants. 

Kylo searches out her pulse, lacing his feelings around hers. “She’s exhausted,” he murmurs. “And no wonder, with the stunts she pulled.” He scoops her into his arms. “We should get her somewhere safe.” 

The chaos outside the ship is beginning to subside, but even so, Merra moves to stand close to him, blaster at the ready. 

Carefully carrying Rey, Kylo heads towards the Falcon. It’s an instinct he didn’t know he still had, thinking of it as a safe haven. 

~

Finn spots Kylo boarding the Falcon and heads in after him, anger simmering in his veins. He’d nearly died the last time he’d faced him alone, but the sight of Rey in his arms has him throwing caution to the wind. “What are you doing with her?” he snaps as Kylo lays Rey down on what had been Rose’s bed. 

Merra raises her blaster, but Kylo waves her down. 

“She’s weak,” he says, eying Finn carefully. “She needs to rest.” 

Finn still regards him suspiciously. “Fine,” he scowls. “But I’m not leaving you alone with her.” 

“Finn!” Poe calls from outside. “Could use a little help out here, buddy.” 

Finn hesitates until Poe calls for him again. With a parting scowl, he moves to rejoin the Resistance. 

Kylo kneels beside Rey, eyes fixed intently on her face. 

“I’ll… go warn the others you’re in here,” Merra mutters. Receiving no response, she follows in Finn’s footsteps. 

~

Rey opens her eyes. Her head is pounding and her limbs feel like lead, but the thought of the battle has her sitting straight up. Wincing, she drops her head into her hands in a vain attempt to stop the pain lancing behind her eyeballs. 

“Careful,” says a familiar voice at her side. “Take things slow.” 

Rey peels one eye open to find Kylo hovering nearby, his hands outstretched but not quite touching her. Groaning, she leans back against the wall. “Are you really here?” she murmurs. Then her mouth quirks into a wry smile. “On the Falcon? Of course you aren’t.” 

Then the weight of Kylo’s hand is on her cheek, solid in a way that it can’t quite be through their Force bond. “I’m here,” he says.

Rey hesitantly reaches her own hand out to rest it on his forearm. Slowly, as if she still can’t quite believe it, she runs it up to his shoulder, his neck, his cheek. Her thumb brushes over the ridge of his scar. Just as slowly, she leans away from the wall, towards him, eyes boring into his.

He meets her halfway. Their lips touch in a soft kiss, Kylo wrapping an arm around Rey’s waist to support her. 

Her body aches all over, and she’s still exhausted, and she doesn’t know what happens now, but the kiss is perfect. She’s smiling as she pulls away and Kylo smiles in response. 

“What’s going on out there?” she asks as she settles back against the wall. 

Immediately, he sobers. “The First Order was defeated,” he says. “Another wave of reinforcements for the Resistance showed up. Finn insisted we take prisoners. He thinks some of the troopers can be reformed.” 

Rey’s smile turns soft. “He’s okay, then? And Poe? And Rose?” 

“All alive and well,” Kylo assures her. “They’re talking with Leia now.” 

Rey senses the swirling storm of emotions centered around him and takes his hand. “Do they know you’re here?” 

Kylo only nods. 

Rey strokes her thumb over the back of his hand. “They’ll accept you,” she says. “Eventually.” 

Kylo looks away. “I’m not staying,” he mutters. 

Rey jolts back into a sitting position, ignoring the twinge of discomfort it brings. “What?” 

“Not all of them would accept me,” Kylo says, still not looking at her. He stares into an unknown middle distance, eyes dark. “And they shouldn’t.” 

“Ben…” Rey stares at him, at a loss for words. 

“There’s another thing,” Kylo says, and he does look at her now. “I want a chance to find out who Ben Solo is away from all… this.” He gestures to the ship around them, towards the room where Leia converses with what’s left of the Resistance. 

Rey bites her lip and nods. 

Just then, there’s movement in the corridor behind them. Merra pokes her head in, offering Rey a nod and a supportive smile. Then she fixes her attention on Kylo. “Got the shuttle ready. It’s waiting for you.” 

Rey’s brow furrows. “You’re leaving  _ now? _ ” she asks as Merra withdraws. 

“I wanted to wait until you were awake,” Kylo says. “But I think it’s probably better that I leave sooner than later.” 

Rey stares down at their joined hands, silent but for her slightly labored breathing. “I still need a teacher,” she says eventually. 

Kylo’s hand tightens involuntarily around hers. “Rey, you have a place here,” he says. 

“I don’t want it,” she says almost immediately. “I’m not a leader. I’m a scavenger from Jakku. I don’t belong here.” 

Kylo struggles to come up with another excuse, even as his heart begs him to accept. Selfishly, he wants to keep her with him, no matter the cost. “But… you…” 

“Have a choice,” Rey finishes for him. “And I’m choosing you.” 

Kylo gapes at her, dumbstruck.

Smiling, Rey moves to get out of the bed, one hand on Kylo’s shoulder for balance. “Now help me stand up,” she says. “I want to say goodbye.” 

~

They hear things, of course. How General Organa is working on establishing a new Republic with Poe, the hotshot pilot turned ambassador, at her side. How Finn spearheads a Stormtrooper reformation program. How Rose works tirelessly to free slaves in far-off colonies. 

Rey revels in their success; she has nothing but admiration for what they’ve accomplished. 

But she and Kylo keep each other busy on Ahch-To. He teaches her to read and write, to unlock powers she didn’t know she had. In turn, she coaxes Ben Solo out piece by piece. 

He’s there in the first time he smiles, laughs, kisses her bare skin. He’s there on starlit nights when the two of them gaze up at the galaxies with their fingers intertwined. 

It takes time, lots of it, but eventually Kylo Ren passes into nightmare, then memory, then nothing. 

They bid Ahch-To goodbye, then. 

A whole new world waits for them outside its borders. 


End file.
